Highway To Hell
by Megan B. Strange
Summary: Yondu dies in the arms of his son, and wakes up with a second chance. Yondu's gonna try and do better this time, but lets face it he's still gonna fuck it up. It's the thought that counts. Time Travel Fix It Fic. Part One of A Bad Man's Second Chance Series.
1. Rewind - A Ravager Funeral

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway to Hell**

* * *

Chapter 1: Rewind - A Ravagers Funeral-

 _Yondu has died. But that's just the begining..._

* * *

He'd refused to close his eyes.

Even as the biting cold stole his breath away and ice began to steal over his vision he kept them open.  
And as cold as he was, so very deathly cold, he was warmer than he'd ever been. So proud.  
Wanting to take that final vision of his boy _his boy_ with him, to whatever awaited him on his way to his uncelebrated grave.

And as darkness stole the light from his eyes, Yondu Udonta was satisfied.

He'd done a lot of bad in his rotten life. A lot of things most beings would deem unforgivable even.  
But this one thing, raising this one boy. Saving his idiot son so's as he could save the galaxy again from its own fool self.

He done right by Peter at the very least.

He could regret the bad.  
Should have been a better daddy. Shouldn't have been so damn scared to let that boy crawl his way into his heart.  
Shoulda kept a tighter hold on them damn Ravager Crew of his. Told them all straight up that having a son don't make nobody soft.  
It makes you stone cold an' all the more dangerous. Reckless like. Like taking on a planet stupid, or flyin to your death in space to save em.

Should have never taken Ego's deal, an' broke the code. But for all he regretted handing over all them kids, Yondu couldn't quite regret taking that deal... got him his hands on Pete after all. And he'd do a lot to keep that boy living...

Did. Heh. Always knew that boy'd be the death of him. His boy.

Yondu floated in the black. Ruminating.

 _Regrets?_

So, yeah he had a lot of regrets. Lot of things he didn't regret either. But that just goes to show. He wasn't ever gonna end up a good man when is all said and done. Was a goddamned merical that Pete'd turned out as good as he'd done, what with him raisin him up. Mother'd probably been a goddamned saint.

 _Perhaps..._

Perhaps? Perhaps what? Yondu thought indignantly, a little perturbed he could still think at all.

Yondu Udonta is a bad sonuvabitch and there aint nothing and no how he'd ever been good for that boy.  
He'd been greedy, he'd been selfish. He'd kill folks and think nothin of it. He'd gotten all them kids killed cause the money'd been too good. He'd stole things for no other reason than cause he could. And worst of all he'd been a goddamn piss poor excuse for a daddy...

Yondu Udonta was a bad man and he deserved all what was commin to him. So what's all this perhapsin' about.

And what's all this floating around in this nothin and black about too while they're at it.

Hell, He hadn't been expectin' no angel choir... and Stakar... Stakar had made it pretty damn clear that he'd never get to hear the hoards or see the colors of Ogord. And why the fuck would he, Yondu had broken the code and that's that. So fuck them too... So there aint nothing for him to be expecting on the other side... But he'd expected maybe something...

But fuck that right.

So what the fuck are they waiting around for. Wasting eternity floating around. Get to the hell-fire and damnation already, he'd certainly earned it.  
Or, Yondu thought, with a kinda sinking feeling that felt a lot like despair, Was this all that his wasted fuck up life of sin an' greed had gotten him... A whole fat lot of nothin.

 _No._

A flash of color split the blackness.

Then another.

And another.

The Colors of Ogord flared into the blackness.

With a brightness that would have had him shielding his eyes if he could, Yondu could only stare in awe as the lights and colors washed over him, a tumultuous emotion stealing his voice, as an endless ache eased inside him even as he felt another squeeze like a painful fist around his heart. A hundred endless lights filling the darkness with luminous color. And from the silence came the sounds of thousand voices raised.

A wordless roar, a cheer. A rallying cry and lament all in one.

Well would you look at that, Yondu finally managed to choke out into the colorful void, a coarse rasping whisper, I'll be goddamned to a ravager's after life after all.

 _No._

Yondu's smile dropped as that same voiceless, presence-less entity whirled around him, whipping about the void at a dangerous pace.

 _Not yet._

The colors of his funeral where whipped about, bleeding into one another as they were tugged about the void. Flickering and shining, like plasma fire. Swirling into a circle faster and faster, with Yondu in the center of it all, until all he could see was endless moving light...

Then just as suddenly it all stopped.

Darkness.

 _Good luck._

And Yondu Udonta woke up.


	2. Steely Dan - Do It Again

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway To Hell**

* * *

Chapter 2: Steely Dan- Do It Again

 _Yondu wakes up... and that's unusual as much as it isn't._

* * *

Yondu woke up.

Correction Yondu lurched upright with a suddenness that knocked him straight out of bed and onto the floor where he hit the ground hard enough to bloody his nose and knock the wind out of himself with his own goddamn knees.

Wheezing and gasping for breath, Yondu rocked back to lean against his bed as he slumped on the floor, cursing and painfully alive.

Grabbing gingerly at his nose, Yondu tried to make sense of things, his hand blindly grabbing for his sheets to staunch the flow. He missed a few times, his brain felt like it had gone through a blender and everything felt over saturated and bright. The hell he drink to get a hangover like this?

Wiping at his nose with the back of his hand, Yondu chucked the sheet away with a disdainful sniff. Rubbing his face, Yondu staggered to his feet, grabbing dizzily for the nearest handhold until he was sure he wasn't going to take another nosedive.

Stretching, Yondu squinted at his surroundings trying to take stock of his situation. Captains quarters, his room, his stuff. Nothing unexpected, but he still felt unsettled and didn't know why.

Rolling his shoulders, Yondu let go of the wall to stare down at his hands, flexing them this way and that. He felt odd in his own skin, like he should be feeling it more, in his back and in his joints. Same hands, same blue, same blunt cracked snagged nails.

Something was different all right, but he'd be damned to tell what it was right now.

"Captain?" Came a voice from the door with a heavy knock.

"Yeah? Wazzit?" Yondu hollered back, trying to shake the daze as he ran a hand over his head, only to do it again in confusion as he felt his fin. Short, it's short. That's right right?

"Call come for yah," That's Horuz's voice, he recognized it now, but it didn't clear his confusion any, "Some bloke, said something about a job."

"Yeah?" Yondu said his voice picking up a bit, he recognized that well enough- and that note of greed in the other man's voice as well. Ravagers, always hungry for coin. Yondu looked around the room, his ravager coat falling under his expectant eyes in the chair where he'd left them. He snagged it and shrugged it on as he moved to the door.

"Put 'im through to my personal line," Yondu said as he shoved the door open so that it knocked into Horuz hard enough to bruise. Striding down the hall, Yondu picked a pace that had the older man jogging to keep up, "And make sure to clear the room. Y'all know better than to let me catch you listening in... But if any y'all greedy son's of bitches to get any stupid ideas..."

Yondu gave a craggy grin as he whistled for his arrow, snatching it out of the air as it came to his call.

"Right away Captain," Came Horuz's stifled yelp as he hustled double time down the hall ahead of them to make sure that the captain's word was done. Yondu's chuckle following the man as he scurried away, hollering for his fellow crew mates to hop too.

However, as soon as Horuz darted out of sight, Yondu's smirk faded just as fast, his red eyes darting about the ship in subtle suspicion. That gut feeling he'd woken up with hadn't left, hadn't even weakened really. Something was different, something had changed... He could feel it like a word caught on the tip of his tongue, and he sucked at his crooked teeth at the sensation.

Ahead of him he could see the ravager's under his command scatter like so many roaches at Horuz's warning call, the room clearing nearly as fast as he approached it.

"Rooms all your's Captain," Horuz stated as he stood the side of the door, and for a second Yondu had to do a double take, because it wasn't supposed to be Horuz's ugly bearded mug saying that, but someone else. Someone scrawnier with more of a ravager accent, to hold the door and jump at his command, "...Sir?"

"Nothin," Yondu barked striding through like there hadn't been an unusual hitch in his step, "Getcher' ugly mugs out'a sight and out'a the way. I'ma see about makin' us some money."

Hauling the door closed tightly behind him with a clang, and Yondu dumped himself into his chair with enough force to give it a spin.

Punching in the code that would give access to his personal line, Yondu pushed himself into another spin, eyes scouring the room. A sharp whistle had his arrow fling itself through a crack that could be used as a peep hole and Yondu grinned to hear a yelp and the thudding of several feet moving rapidly away. A following trill had the arrow chase them a bit before sending it twirling on it's back towards him.

"Ah, Mr. Yondu Udonta I presume," came a voice that was dreadfully familiar, and Yondu halted his spin sharply, snatching the frozen arrow from the air, as he felt ice bloom in his veins.

Stomach plummeting as horrific, awful awareness began to crawl its way through his synapses like cruel unrelenting lightning. And that dull colorful haze that had clouded his mind dissipated into a terrible clarity of memories... Yondu knew where he was. Yondu knew this very moment. He knew exactly who he was speaking too, and who he'd see when he turned around...

"Ego."


	3. Steve Ouimette - Devil Went Down Georgia

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway To Hell**

* * *

Chapter Three: Steve Ouimette- The Devil Went Down to Georgia

 _Yondu faces a second chance at life... but some mistakes are worth making twice._

* * *

A moment isn't a lot of time to come up plan.

It's certainly not enough time to come up with a good plan, let alone a lousy one.

And it's absolutely not enough time to come to terms with the fact that you've lived this life once over already and are fixing on living it over again. And living it day one from that worst mistake you ever damned yourself to make in your life...

But a moment is all the time he's got, and Yondu isn't planning on letting this slip by.

"It seem's my reputation has preceded me," said that smug ass smarmy voice.

He could shut this all down right now. Kill the call without a word, never think of this asshole ever again. Terra aint hard to find, and Yondu could find his boy anywhere in the galaxy even when he was running from him... He doesn't need him or his deal or his goddamn blood money.

But it wern't just Pete this devil was after was it...

Yondu breaths for a hot second, exhaling the rage and hate from his eyes before slapping his sleaziest, scuzziest, sneeringest grin on his face and turns around to face evilest sonovabitch he's ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

Rule number one, always be the most confident person in the room. And if you aint, fake it better and the rest will follow.

"Rumors mostly," Yondu said, sucking his teeth as he slouches in his chair. He kicks a leg over the arm, and starts picking at the dirt under his fingernails with his all the smug confidence of an honorless two-timing lowlife criminal he can muster."Fastest way to get a word around the galaxy anyhow. And the Word is that you're a _generous_ man. A generous man with a job needing doin..."

Rule number two, play to their expectations and you can always get the upper hand.

Ego expected him to be greedy. Greedy and stupid. Greedy and stupid enough to break code and cast away honor. Enough to forget about consequences and not ask too many questions.

(That first time around, there hadn't been anything faked. Yondu had been new to captaining on his own, and his crew had gotten some deep empty pockets. He'd been just that greedy and stupid enough to bite the shit that Ego dangled in front of him.)

This time however, Yondu knew what his greed would get him.

"Ha ha, and that I am," Ego laughed, tapping his nose. The man was dialing up the charm, his eyes twinkling like they were sharing some kind of secret. "I have be known to generous, perhaps even charitable, to the people who do favors for me.  
And I would feel inclined to be _very_ generous to the individual who would do me the favor of transporting some _very_ precious cargo."

"Yeah, how precious we talkin?" Yondu passed a glance around the room, shifting in his chair to lean closer to the viewer. Body language has a manipulation all its own. Look away, don't show your interest straight up, but if your body don't agree with your eyes you can give away your true interest. Or bait a sucker or sell a lie.

"Oh nothing that would have any value to you," Ego said with a shake of his head and a grandiose wave of his hand, "Or that anyone else would find value for that matter. But all the more valuable to me. You see, Yondu- I can call you Yondu?"

"Rather you didn't," Yondu said through his teeth as he scratched his chin, "Don't know if I like you yet..." and gave him a look that demanded Ego get to the point.

"Udonta then," Ego said, all condescending politeness with a conceding smile, " You see Udonta, when I say precious I don't mean treasure or money or any other such pointless things. I mean precious. As in dear to my heart..."

Yondu bit back a sneer as Ego made his pitch. This grade A asshole sure did love to hear himself talk, and since he'd heard this around already, Yondu tuned him out, pulling himself into a considering air, making the occasional 'I'm listing' grunt, and let himself _think_.

It'd sounded so clean and easy the first time around... Get paid a king's ransom just to play taxi to Daddy's long lost spawn, a cakewalk. Almost easier than than stealing it.

First time around, Yondu had heard the word kid and had baulked. Then he'd heard the price tag attached and found he could bend his way around Ravager Code this one time. Only it hadn't been one time, had it. But the money had still been too good, and Ego had promised he wasn't doin them any harm... Like his word had been worth anymore'n Yondu's in the end... All them kids.

A thought sparked there, and Yondu grabbed it and ran before he could overthink it.

"I ain't buyin' it," Yondu said abruptly cutting off Ego's monolog of the price he'd put on love.

"I'm sorry?" Ego's eyebrows furrowed in surprise confusion at being derailed.

"Said I ain't buyin it," Yondu kicked his feet down to the floor and pulled himself in close to the viewer. Leaning in on the arm of the chair Yondu gave the devil a good view of his sharp crooked grin as he oozed that chummy co-conspirator slime.

"You're tellin me," He waved his arrow like a pointer finger at the screen, "That a filthy rich man o'the world like you done traveled the _whole span_ of the galaxy, an' you only got _one_ squirmin sprog making its way towards you?"

Yondu pitched back his head in a sharp barking laugh, before leaning back in with sneer.

"Sides it don't matter no how. Ravagers' don't deal in kids."

He said it with a grin, and let that hungry greed shine from his eyes and bleed from his body language. _Make me an offer_ it said, _Make it so worth my while I can't refuse. I've been looking for a reason and Honor means nothing in the face of Greed like this._

Yondu watched Ego look him over, saw that calculating glint as that otherworldly bastard reassessed his estimate of his character. _That's right, you can use scum like me, can't cha._

"It's not so much _dealing_ as it is _doing a favor,_ " Ego stated, parsing his words with a sly grin and a tilt to his head, and Yondu allowed just a smidge of that smug success to crease his face. Ego danced his words around the boundaries of Ravager Honor, edging closer and closer to the edges as he watched Yondu's apparent interest grow with every moving decimal. Yes perhaps Ego _had_ been a bit more promiscuous than he'd first let on, but each and every one of them was worth an incredible sum don't you see. All of them orphans or nearing surely, and needed to be brought back into the fold of Ego's loving arms... And Yondu would be compensated considerably for each and every one.

"How many back an' forth trips we talking," Yondu asked, the worries of honor and code had been dropped several decimals ago, especially when the children stopped being spoken of as cargo and started treated as a multiplying sum.

Ego hemmed and hawed a little bit, and Yondu decided now was time to cut to the chase, "Seems to me, bouncing me 'n my crew back an forth across the galaxy to ferry your brood in one by one aint gonna be the most economical way to go about this. So how about this.

"Say you give me a list," Yondu leaned back, casual as you please, "And when me an' my crew is full up, we'll drop the whole lot of them down on your doorstep to say hello to daddy dearest at last. And we can settle up with a nice big thank you for each an' every one of their dear precious heads."

If he hadn't been watching for it, he might have missed it, but Yondu managed to catch that echoing flash of greed in Ego's eyes at the notion. The pretence of care had long since been dropped for the sham it was, and Yondu had made it plenty clear he didn't care a bit about Ego's motives and every bit about how much wealth he could wring out of him. Which was a considerable amount to a being of his powers, who could pull gold and plasma and precious rare metals out of the air with nary a thought.

"Of course," Yondu continued, reclining in his seat and inspecting his cracked nails, "Bunch o' youngin's like that can get mighty expensive. And I got a hungry crew what without all them extra mouths to feed... I'm gonna be needing some up front compensation in all this. Just so's we can get by till we getcha yer kin, you understand."

Ego grinned brilliantly at him, and Yondu knew the immortal asshole believed he'd won.

"How about this Yondu," Ego smiled as he twirled his fingers through the air leaving patterns of light trailing behind, "Let's say, oh a half percent. That should be more than enough to get you started and send you on our way."

Yondu frowned dangerously, "Half percent don't sound nearly as friendly as you been makin this out to be now. Ain't that a lil bit light for this grand favor I'm doin you."

"Oh no, no," Ego laughed the lights fading as the screen next to Yondu flickered on for uploading data, "I believe you will find our agreement to be far more profitable for you than you realize. I think you'll be quite pleased.

"Ta ta, my friend," Ego waved, "We'll be in touch."

The connection cut, the viewscreen went dark.  
And Yondu was left staring at his own sneering reflection.

He wanted to rage. He wanted to throw his fist through the viewer and hurl curses to the stars.  
He wanted to beat something bloody and strangle it with his own bare hands.  
He wanted to get into a fight he couldn't win and get the shit kicked out of himself.

He wanted laugh and laugh until he was sick...

He didn't do any of that though. Just sat and stared at his loathsome reflection and waited.

Because he'd done it...

Ego had been utterly and absolutely convinced that Yondu was a piece of shit who'd do anything for money. A perfectly honorless sonovabitch lowlife scum who didn't give a damn about a bunch of kids gettin stole and shipped off for who knows what ends.

And he'd given Yondu a list.

A whole goddamn list of kids that called that maniac blood, that would die at his hands as soon as they set their lil selves on that god forsaken planet.

A whole goddamn list of kids Ego expected Yondu to deliver.

Good thing Yondu's word ain't worth for shit.


	4. GunsN'Roses - Welcome To The Jungle

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway To Hell**

* * *

Chapter Four: Guns N'Roses- Welcome to the Jungle

 _Yondu's bitten off a bit more than he can chew... but fuck it he'll deal or die trying._

* * *

The door was flung open with a thunderous clang.

"Yah- Ah, Captain," Horuz yelped as he jumped up out of the captains seat guiltily, before coughing to roughen his voice to a more natural grumble, "Captain."

Yondu ignored him as he stalked across the room with a purposeful stride to stand in front of his dash. His red eyes charted the stars in stony silence, jaw hard set in an unreadable expression as he hunched over his controls... a datapad clutched in one hand and a tight fist in the other.

Horuz stifled a shudder, struck with a subtle un-right-ness of foreboding and dread.

"Captain?" Horuz ventured when the silence continued longer than he could bare.

The blue man grunted, acknowledging his presence but nothing more.

"We, uh," Horuz tugged at his beard, unnerved and trepidatious, "We got a job?"

There was a beat of silence more, and Horuz swallowed to hear Yondu's knuckles creak as they tightened dangerously around the datapad.

"Nah," Yondu finally said, and the blank face was replaced with a crooked grin that Horuz would have been relieved to see had he not just seen how unsettled he was. The tension gone, and replaced with that easy casual confidence, and vicious humor, "What we got is a fuckload of credits

"Just a done a bit of daylight robbery," Yondu barked a laugh and slapped Horuz on the shoulder with enough force to make the big man shift, "Call up the boys and plot us a course to the nearest port with a pub. We're gonna get drunk."

The cheer was taken up by the ravagers still manning the floor, and was soon spread about ship; the promise of money and future inebriation making hard workers out of the lot of them. Horuz cheered with them, but kept a close eye on their blue captain... Better to be safe than sorry and wind up dead.

Yondu grinned at his men as he threw himself into his chair. To all appearances, relaxed and completely at ease... save for the hand clutching the datapad in a relentless grasp.

They wound up at a bar on some moon near Xandar, the closest one within jumping distance that was a 'ravager friendly' haunt. The kind of place that you can never remember the name of because of how hard and heavy the liquor flows, and no one minds if somebody breaks a few chairs or heads.

The crew of the Eclector swarmed the bar in true ravager fashion, and there was raucous music and dancing and drinks aplenty as the men celebrated a lucky windfall courtesy of their captain's excellent skills at swindling rich assholes with no sense of money. Many a toast was raised, and all was well... as far as they were concerned.

Yondu couldn't get drunk fast enough.

He'd commandeered a seat at the far end of the bar, where he could get some privacy to view the list that Ego had sent him- and keep a steady flow of booze headed his way.

Out of the way of stray elbows or prying eyes and close enough he could keep an eye on his rowdy lot- at least that had been the plan.

Instead he was sitting there pounding drinks like he was trying to drown something inside him. All of his attention fixed on the damn list as he tried to find the end of it...

It was detailed. It was informative. And it was devastatingly long.  
Yondu hadn't really kept track of how many kid's he'd fetched for Ego the first time around. At least a dozen, before he started to worry and no more than twenty when he finally got wise. And he'd regretted it, in that abstract way you can regret doing folks wrong when you can't remember their faces. But this... how long had this been going on?

Yondu drained his mug, and waved for another.

He must have done a damn fine job of being the worst kind of scum. And Yondu congratulated himself on the job well done even as he choked on his disgust. Draining his new beer near empty to wash it down.

He'd been exiled from the Ravager's when they'd found out what he had done... But this, this was going to be so much worse. Because there was no way Yondu was going to be able to let this go. Hell if he thought his chances for survival were any better than they were last time, Yondu would fly his crew straight to Ego's planetary self and beat him into so much space dust with his own bear hands. As it was, it would be all he could do to grab what he can and keep his crew in the dark for as long as possible.

The Ravager Code was brutal as it was simple, but it had a kind of justice to it that rang true. Respect your captain, don't steal from crew, and if you step out of line you better be repenting fast you'll wind up dead faster. And death could be considered quite the mercy- quick and fast. Death before dishonor... people'd still think on you fondly, and even the greatest fuck up was still considered a part of the ravager clan.

Ravager's understand greed, covetousness was part of their nature, and if you can't trust your mates to honor their cut, you could always just honor their corpse. Always trust a dead man to stay dead.

You could rape, murder and steal and be all kinds of a liar and two-timing cheat... so long as you obeyed the code you'd still have an army at your back.

But there were things that even a Ravager wouldn't forgive...

Among the hoards of freedom, every man, woman and disparate beings, every soul is free. Free folk aint property. And children... Children who come into this goddamned world thinking the best of everything just cause they don't know better... Children deserve to be free. To be goddamned kids for as long as they can cause this galaxy will chew them up and spit them out soon enough as is. And anybody who takes advantage of that, who looks into them stupid youthful faces and see only what they can get out of it for themselves...

That kind has no place with the hoards of freedom.

Yondu knew. He may not have known it that first time, but when that second kid was dropped off- and he'd seen neither hide nor hare of the first one- He knew. He knew what his greed had done and he'd didn't want to admit it. So he'd closed his eyes until it was impossible not to see that Ego's kids weren't getting that fairytale life he'd promised them...

And when the clans found out, when Stakar found out... He knew that they'd see what he'd done for what it was. A mistake of twelve or so kids, willful blindness and greed... and wholly unforgivable.

And fuck, if he's not gonna have to face up to more than that this time. Doesn't matter that he knows, _he knows_ , that these kids are in danger just living where they are. Doesn't matter that he's got no intention of delivering these kids to their death. He took money for lives and made a deal for souls... Ravager's take one look at that and...

It looks bad. It looks worse. But he's gonna do it anyways. Yondu's got no other choice.

Not one he can make and live with.

Yondu blinks, setting his bottle down on the table, and then the data pad face down next to it. The celebration his crew's throwing right now didn't have to be a lie. He could pitch this list right now, and walk away and go find Pete and stay amongst the hoards of freedom with his Ravager Clan's pride and backing.

But if he did, it would be just as well he handed over the kids himself.

Cause there'd be others, had to have been others like him, willing to sell his soul for cash and willfully blind or just oblivious to the massacre of innocents taking place at that monster's hands.

And he couldn't live with being part of that that again.

So to hell with it. Yondu straightened in his seat. They exile him again, they exile him for this, and Yondu'll tell them all to go to straight to Hell and stick it where the sun don't shine. He'll steal every last goddamn kid on this list before Ego'll get his bloody hands on them. At least then he'll know where he stands...

At that moment the sound of smashing glass, and a familiar yelp catches his ear, and Yondu is up and moving, with the datapad in his pocket and a whistle in the air before he fully knows where he's going.

Predictably it's a fight, and an unfair one at that.

A Ravager grunt, a pig eyed and warty beast of a man, with two friends as big and smelly as him, have a much smaller body pinned to the floor between them. A boy, a scrawny lanky boy all big ears and teeth, and 100 pounds soaking wet at best.

But not for long as, with a large meaty fist pulled back into the air, Pig-Eyes suddenly gasps his last as Yondu's arrow skewers him- looping back multiple times to perforate his vital organs. A staccato trill, and it swerves, in a long arc going through the heads of Brute One and Brute Two.

The crowd surrounding the fight step back, some ducking instinctively as Yondu approaches and kicks over the dying man to fall off to the side of his last victim, falling just a shade harder than the twin thump of his now dead bully friends.

"You alright there, Kraglin," Yondu said to the prone form on the floor as he stared down the crowd, crew and barhopper alike shrinking away from his murderous gaze.

"Ahh-yes?" the boy said in a voice that cracked as much as it wheezed, and Yondu had to do a double take. It was Kraglin alright, thin and as gawky as he ever was before he grew into his face, sprawled out on the floor with a bloody nose, a black eye, and his arms full of ravager leathers, "Yeah I'm okay. Nothin' I ain't had worse."

"Good," Yondu said, looking away before he did anything so foolish as gaping like a fish at his de-aged first mate, "Somebody like to tell me why I've had to come bloody my boots when we was supposed to be celebrating? Or do I gotta finish whistling a tune to get somebody to squeal?"

Yondu raked the crowd over for members of his crew, before pinning his gaze on Horuz when he shifted at his place at the recruitment table. The man rocked back on his heels at the look, and jibbered a bit before words could make their way out of his crusty beard.

"Trotters there," Horuz nodded his head at the pig eyed corpse, "Took exception to this'n here picking up leathers. They were sayin' some things about the boy here not being up to snuff to be a new recruit. Boys were drunk and ornery, you know how they git. Was fine though until Trott tried to take the kid's leathers off him. Boy went off like a firecracker and started swingin'."

"'could have taken them," came the muffled grumble from the floor as Kraglin staggered upright, clutching his raggy shirt to his bleeding nose and red ravager leathers under one arm.

"Sure you could, boy," Yondu huffed gruffly, frowning to fight off a fond grin.

"Sure you could," Horuz echoed, with an honest scowl and a right proper glare.

"Well, if you're gonna be part of my crew" Yondu turned to Kraglin, twirling his arrow in his fingers before putting it away, "You better stay sharp kid. Since you're the reason we're three down, you're just gonna have to pick up the slack.

"If you ain't as good as three ravager's put together to make up for the ones I lost," Yondu continued, letting a toothy smile split his face as Kraglin gaped at him, "I'll kill you myself an' feed you to the crew- How do you like that?"

Kraglin's jaw snapped shut as he pulled himself into a ravager salute, "I'll do my best Capn."  
"Yeah you will," Yondu laughed and slapped the boy's shoulder, turning him to the bar, "Getcher a drink and fetch another for me while you're at it- Horuz!"

"Sir," Horuz said to Yondu's snap.

"Tell the boys to get their last round," Yondu straightened his jacket and cracked his neck, "It's last call, an we're packin it in. If they're too drunk to get their asses back to the ship themselves, they better get somebody to carry them. Ships leaving whether they on it or not."

Yondu strode away, heading to the bar where Kraglin waited with one beer pressed to his face and the other at his elbow on the bar.

Horuz watched him go, frowning as the Captain smiled at the new recruit and laughed like he hadn't been brooding the whole night away hours before.

Something was up. And Horuz didn't like it.


	5. Van Halen - Running With The Devil

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway To Hell**

* * *

Chapter 5: Van Halen- Runnin With The Devil

 _Yondu's up to no good and keeping the crew in the dark... Its the kinda' thing Crew's bound to notice sooner rather than later._

* * *

There was trouble coming...

Horuz could scent it in the air. It set his teeth on edge. It made his skin crawl. And his sense of paranoia, as hail and healthy as any ravager's would be to last long enough to reach his age, into overdrive.  
Something was wrong. Like someone had rifled through his shit and put everything back just _so,_ but still that barest fraction of an inch off. It was that instinctual sensation, the kind that you can't quite put your finger on but you just _know_. And Horuz trusted that gut deep feeling to a level that bordered on superstition.

And right now that feeling was telling him that _something_ was _up_ with Captain Udonta.

For not having a job, the centaurian sure was acting like he was on a mission. Oh, he was still acting normal, still dangerous and deadly as usual... but when he wasn't barking at the crew to get off their lazy asses and do their jobs and threatening to whistle 'em into shape he was holed up in a room all privet like looking at star charts and hogging the info-feeds of every planetary network in reach.  
That kind of relentless focus usually promised something big, but their blue captain hadn't mentioned so much of a peep word wise to anyone about anything that didn't already involve the Eclector. Only one he did talk to much was that new xandarian boy.

And that was another thing Horuz didn't like.  
He kept his mouth shut about it. Because he knew better than to mouth off, better to keep breathing another day. You don't disagree with ravager captains over something they think is important. You just don't.  
But that was just it. For some reason this backwater xandarian stray, some _kid,_ had managed to get Captain Udonta's attention. Captain wasn't talking to the crew, shutting himself away for days and acting all manner of secretive, but he was talking to him. Oh, Horuz was sure the kid didn't know what was going on with the blue man any more than the rest of them did. As tight lipped as the captain was being, telling a green recruit something he wouldn't share with the rest of them wasn't going to happen. But when the captain decided to grace them with his cheerful self, the kid was never far from his side.  
It smacked of special treatment, and Horuz knew the rest of the ravager's had noticed it like he had. Already he could hear grumbles of discontent stirring the pot. Horuz had seen the kid taking checked-shoulders in the hallways, low comments and jibing sneers. One particularly idiotic grunt had muttered in Horuz's range of hearing, wondering if the captain had taken to keeping the xandarian boy so close that he'd sleep with him too.  
Horuz killed that man himself. A mercy really. Better off dead than to let Yondu catch wind of that.  
It would be worse, he supposed. Horuz didn't care for kids as a general rule, but that Kraglin had actually turned out to be a damned hard worker. Horuz had seen the boy doing everything from fetching the captain food to cleaning vents and doing repairs. He'd even caught the kid trying to convince the ravager in charge of inventory to give him a space suit so he could get outside and adjust the signal receptors for better range. Boy had apparently taken the captain's words to heart, as the kid was running himself ragged trying to do everything and then some. He'd found him nodding off over his chow on more than one occasion, and he had circles under his eyes that rivaled the captains.

But whatever had caused those dark circles for the captain had lit a fire under his ass. As soon as the centaurian finished whatever it was that had gotten him so preoccupied, Udonta had apparently made up his mind about it. The Captain set them on a course across the galaxy that had the Eclector burning fuel and hauling ass like the Kree were breathing down their backside.

Running like this usually meant that they were either running from something or running too it. Seeing as they haddn't managed to piss off anyone worth this kind of hard burn in a while, the other option seemed more than likey. As far as explanations go, it was as logical a one as any other that the average intelligence of a ravager could come up with. And with how the captain had been acting lately, most of the ravager crew assumed that thing to be some sort of job.  
So even though the captain was still keeping a tight lip around whatever he planned, chumming it up with his stray, it eased the tension somewhat. Horuz just held his breath and waited for the other shoe to drop.

They'd been flying past the edge of the Fornax galaxy when the captain redirected them down towards Xarta IV, ostensibly to raid one of the ruined cities for anything of value that hadn't been nailed down so tight a crowbar couldn't fix it. The crew had been eager for the job, tired of being cooped up and looking forward to stealing things and breaking shit and maybe find some long lost treasure. Horuz held his tongue but he'd had his doubts. Job like this was a milk run. The kind of thing you do every now and then to take the edge off and keep the crew busy so they don't start thinking too hard about what they'd like to do instead. Certainly not a reason for them to be screaming across the stars.

Well, they'd gone down alright. Made a ruckus and grabbed some shit then headed back to the ship. Only to discover the captain had managed to pick himself up another stray.  
Horuz discovered them in the medbay, with Kraglin riffling through the supplies as the captain stood before the kid sitting on the table with a rag pressed to over a fresh translation implant.

"-want off this rock don'tcha?" he heard Yondu say over his shoulder and Horuz tucked himself to the side of the door where the captain wouldn't see him eavesdrop.

The kid looked at the captain with distrustful eyes but he nodded. At least Horuz thought it was distrustful, the kids facial features kept shifting about and changing in an unsettling manner, which made it hard to read. "Right. That's what I thought. So, since you're gonna be riding with us let's get a few things straight."

"Alright, rule number one kid," the captain continued," when I'm talking to you, pick a face and stick with it. You're makin' me goddamn nauseous. So knock it off."

"Sorry," The kid rasped, frowning as he pulled a face that looked uncomfortable, "It's hard not too, I can't control it much."

"Control it anyways," the captain said and moved out of sight. Horuz could hear the door from the other end open.

"Got it, Krags? Good," Yondu said before moving again, "Alright kid. First things first; I'm the captain of this boat, so that means my word's law. I say move, you move. I whistle, you move faster. Understand?"

Horuz could see the man's blue hands move into view and drop something over the kid's shoulders. Ravager leathers. "You stick with Kraglin here. He's about your age. He'll show you the ropes. You got any questions he'll know it, and if he don't, you come to me. Got it?"

"Sure thing cap'n,"

"You too, Willit."

"Oh! Um, yes. Yes sir. I got it."

"Good!" And Horuz heard the sound of a shoulder being slapped, "Kraglin, show the kid to a bunk and get some food into him. Kid's been living on lizards and sand from what I could see. I'm gonna go get ship in the air. We're burning daylight."

Horuz quickly stepped away and waited as the captain exited the medbay and strode off towards the bridge, before following a short time after.  
So the captain had found some brat living among the ruins and decided he'd make a good recrute. It wasn't unusual for ravager's to recruit young, but it wasn't common either. And the kid had obviously inherited the shapeshifting gene, which could prove useful once they learned how to steal faces and become things.

Once the surprise of the 'new face' wore off, the crew accepted the kid well enough. Even they could see that keeping a shifter was a smart choice, even if you had to raise it up. And having the kid as Kraglins' shadow kept most of the crew from caring what the brats did so long as it was out of their way. Horuz was tempted to brush it off as a coincidence, but there was just something about that didn't sit right.

And then Yondu did it again.

They were flying through the edge of the Shi'ar Empire's territory when the captain sprang the idea of going on an ammo run on the crew. He'd run their trajectory near one of the Empire's 'lower elite' military academies that floated out on an asteroid belt, and was sure to house a good number of ballista and plasma, and just ripe for swiping.  
They planned it out, a whole covert dash and grab, and for a while Horuz felt like everything had gotten back to normal. Yondu picking out his trusted few to go in for the job, threats and jokes flying out in equal measure.

Then they hit the ground, and somewhere towards the middle of the job Horuz lost track of the captain. Alarm washed through him at the thought of the job going south, but he kept tight hold of the men under him- snapping at them to do the job they'd come for. They were packing up the last of the plasma when Yondu returned- with a trussed up young shi'ar aerie chucked over his shoulder where it squirmed and glared bloody murder over his gag.

"Insurance," Yondu had growled at their questioning glance as an alarm began to sound, "Grab the stuff and move. We're getting out of here."

H'ekk Abah Novice Military Trainee 43970, as they discovered as soon as they removed his gag, was not happy to be held hostage aboard the Eclector any more than the crew was happy having him as one. The feathered brat was a downright menace, with a voice that threatened to break glass with its shrillness. He yelled constantly. Spewing the propaganda rhetoric that the school'd been feeding him for breakfast lunch and dinner probably longer than he could talk.

"Death to the enemies of Shi'ar!"

Horuz narrowly ducked out of the way as the feathered ball of rage lept out of nowhere.

"Death! Death to the Enemy!" H'ekk shrieked as he attacked his unfortunate victim of his ambush with all his might, "You shall rue the day you made an enemy of the Shi'ar!"  
And the kid's failed ambush landed him under the captain's arm where he clawed and flapped with indignant rage as he scrabbled to break free,"Kid, you're like nine."

"The Shi'ar will come for me!" The kid wailed as Yondu took him back to his room.

They weren't. Or at least, the Eclector wasn't being followed by any Shi'ar ships that they could tell, be it for kidnapping or robbery or just violation of territory. Still, they weren't sticking around to find out- keeping up their breakneck pace to the border.

When they got to the border however, made a stop. And Horuz and the crew breathed a sigh of relief. The Cyrane Om'l star system was part of the Shi'ar Empire, and the only reason to stop now, only reason that made sense was if they were dropping off the hell child for the empire to collect, or not-collect as they will. But the kid would be _off the ship._ Yondu took a shuttle down to Tryl'sart, and the crew got royally drunk in celebration.

Only to wake up to their hangovers the next day and discover that not only was the hell child still on the ship, but the captain had picked up _another fucking child._ And this time it was a girl. A fuzzy tailed, black and white Mephitisoid little _girl_ who was making the place _reek_ with her displeasure.

Horuz was now well and truly alarmed. The Obfonteri kid could be a regular recruit. The shapeshifter a coincidence and a lucky asset. The hell child could even be explained away as a hostage. But there was no reason to keep a hostage you don't need and absolutely no logical explanation why they now had another kid gumming up their works. Captain Udonta had them racing across space with a powerful will, laying a course that zigged as much as it zagged, cutting a swath through the stars in the most direct way possible... And still not a word about what was going on.

Horuz didn't like it and the crew was unhappy not knowing what was going on. And because Captain Udonta wasn't explaining shit, Horuz was having to fend off the crew's rumor mill with nothing more than falling back on code and history. _The code says ravager's don't deal in kids, and don't let the captain catch you talking like that. You'll be dead before you hear his whistle._

Horuz liked to think he knew the captain pretty well.  
He and Yondu had worked the same crew since pretty much the beginning. He hadn't been there when Stakar had broken Yondu's chains, but he'd signed on with the Ogord clan pretty soon after. When Yondu had completed the job that got them the Eclector, Horuz had been there when Stakar had given it back and told him to do him proud... Stakar Ogord and his clan had been around for years. He was a great man, as much a war hero was he was a powerful criminal wanted across half the galaxy. But Horuz hadn't hesitated to jump ship and join up with the new Udonta Clan.

Yondu Udonta was as clever as he was mean, with a streak of vicious humor to boot. He would as soon kill a man for an insult as he would for threatening a member of his crew, but if you toed the line and kept your head on your shoulders and your tongue in your mouth you could pretty much guarantee you'd live to see tomorrow.

And for a man of Horuz's modest ambitions, meant he'd make first mate in no time.

But that's besides the point.

The Point. The point is that Stakar Ogord was a hardass, and he'd ground respect for the ravager's code into Yondu's brain so hard it was more'n likely the reason the centurion had that implant instead of a proper crest like the rest of his kind.

So the idea that Captain Yondu Udonta has broken code and is trafficking kids...

It's unthinkable. Preposterous. Horuz would kill someone just for the idea on principle alone.

It's absolutely impossible that Yondu's got them racing through the galaxy collecting children. Ridiculous to suggest that, while Horuz sits here, manning the bridge while Yondu 'runs an errand' on a planet in the thinnest part of the goddamn Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, the captain will return with another fucking kid.

And as Horuz hears the proximity alert, notifying the ship that the captain's shuttle has returned, Horuz sees a light blink on the dash for an incoming call with a very unique, very familiar signal.

And suddenly Horuz has doubts.

The captain arrived on the bridge, and Horuz reflexively got out of his seat- moving on autopilot more than anything else.

"Call for you captain," Horuz says as he turns around, and there is Captain Udonta- arms full of some small squirming green thing trying its best to cuddle up to him. A Cotati variant it looks like, product of whatever mutations happened to the race down the line. Small and round and cactus-like, with yellow dreadlock fronds on top of it's head, and if Yondu's pained expression is anything to go on, covered in sharp pointy spines.

"I'll take it," Big red eyes blink at him from under Yondu's chin as he responds.

"Aye, Captain," Horuz says and clears the room, barking at the other ravagers gawking at the thing in their captain's arms to move it or lose it.

And as Horuz leaves the bridge, he decides it's time to make a call of his own.


	6. The Doors - Riders On The Storm

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway To Hell**

* * *

Chapter 6: The Doors- Riders On The Storm

 _Things are heating up and set to boil over soon. Yondu isn't doing so hot..._

* * *

The nightmares were getting worse.

Yondu sat in the dark of his room on the edge of his bed, his sheets a tangled nest behind him. Exhausted, and unable to sleep.

He'd been dreaming of Peter, back when the boy was still just a boy. Peter'd been full of mischief, laughing as he ran off ahead staying just out of reach. Yondu had been chasing him, angry and terrified. Knowing that his fool son was heading headlong into danger, oblivious and deaf to Yondu's warning threats and shouts.

And with every step he took, Yondu lost more ground. The distance stretching between them as he lost his footing and he had to climb. His limbs slow and heavy, his jacket soaked in blood weighing down his arms. Climbing up a mountain of bones, shifting and sliding under his feet, sinking deeper as grasping skeletal hands pulled him down...

So, no he wasn't sleeping much.

Elbows on his knees, Yondu rubbed his face with one hand, his scruff rasping against his palm, as he looked over at the datapad. He reached over and picked it up from where it rested on a shelf, shut off and dark save for the low red light of it charging, and just held it in his hand.

The first time around there hadn't been this kind of rush. They'd gone months one kid at a time, as they flew back to Ego's planet, before he'd call them up again to fetch another. The crew understood money, and put up with the kid well enough since they knew it would be gone soon anyways. Problems only started when Yondu had discovered he had a conscience after all, and threw away that paycheck to keep the boy who he'd let into his heart.

This time, Yondu didn't dare let the crew in on what was going down, and he was starting to feel the consequences of that. He knew that his crew was starting to get mullish. They were unhappy, and dangerously so. All he could do was keep riding them hard, and hope he'd have some semblance of a crew left in the fallout. Scrounging up what jobs he could to keep them busy. They were making their way to Deo where they'd need to stop. To pick up some supplies, and for Yondu to make up some other reason to explain away another kid on board. He was running out of ideas and excuses, but he knew he'd have to come up with something. And find something better than milk runs to distract the crew or things were going to get ugly soon. At least they weren't hurting for money. Ego hadn't been joking around with that goddamn half percent...

Just a few more stops, and they'd take the long jump to Terra.

Yondu couldn't help but feel he was running out of time.

The door to his room creaked open, near silent on its hinges and Yondu looked up- his fin flickering with a low red glow in instinctive reaction- only to see the low light reflected with the catlike shine from a pair of small black eyes.

"What're you doin' here, girly," Yondu said gruffly, his voice low but not unkind. The little mephitisoid slipped into the room on near silent feet, her footsteps barely heard over the sound of space dust shushing against the hold as the ship's engines gently thrummed, "Thought you'd still be holed up in that room of yours. Ain't you know you supposed to be sleepin?"

The girl murmured something under her breath, ears twitching as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. She stood barely in the room with her hand still on the door handle.

"Didn't catch that," Yondu said, taking a deep breath and letting his hands hang between his knees as he gave her his full attention, "You gotta reason for being here?"

"-s True?" Her voice was quiet and oh so very young, and he could tell she was trying to be brave, "I had to find out... If it was true."

"Ravagers lie as easy as breathin' girl," Yondu said with a low groan, "You're gonna have to be more specific."

"Is it true," She asked again, her voice a little bit stronger as she took a small step forward, "That you're not taking us to our father."

"What?" Yondu looked up sharply, quiet alarm coursing through him, "Where'd- Who told you that."

"Nettle," She said stepping back, tucking her chin down to her chest, "Nettle told me."

"Nettle?" And Yondu remembered that was what they'd all ended up calling the little cactus-thing, "She couldn't have told you anything like that, kid. Nettle doesn't talk, she's mute."

"She does too," The girls ears twitched, betraying her frown in the low light.  
"And how's that?"

"Telepathy," She continued, "Not with words, and- and not very well. But she can."

"Alright," Yondu said with a sigh, accepting that as stranger things had happened, "And what _exactly_ did she tell you."

"She told me..." She tucked her head down again, clinging to the door with one hand, "She told me that when you picked her up from the desert, you were worried. And that you were glad you found her before someone else did. Because you wanted to make sure we were safe.

"She said that we were sisters," The there was a note of strained confusion in her voice and the little girl finally let go of the door to step forward. Wringing her hands in her shirt as she looked at him pleadingly, "And that the boys were our brothers. And that our father must have been someone like Willit to have made all of us. And she said he was a very very bad man, and that you were going to make sure that he would _never ever_ find us.

"W-why would she say that," Her voice finally quavered with her obvious upset, "She put it in my head so I could see it. And it felt _true,_ but it _can't_ be. It's all wrong and-" The girl stopped abruptly, more than likely holding her breath in an attempt not to cry.

"You said you knew my father," She said abruptly, tears in her voice and fists at her sides, as she took a trembling step forward, "You told my matron, that you knew my dad. And they told me to go with you. Because male mephitisoids are rare. And they want to know where he is. So they can find him.

"So is it- is it true? Because if it is..." And her voice broke off with a choked whimper, as she bit her lip and clutched her fluffy tail to her chest. The sharp salty scent of her distress lingering like petrichor in the air.

"...Kid," Yondu said, and hung his head with a hard exhale. He was too tired and exhausted to deal with this right now.

There was a time when that would have been reason enough for him to send her away. To tell her a lie or the truth, whichever would have gotten her to leave the room faster so that he could go back to sleep. But that was the time before Peter.

Yondu rubbed his face and neck for a second, looking at child before him, trying so very hard to be brave... And he sighed deeply in surrender before tossing the datapad to the side.

"Anushka, right?" He asked, receiving a small nod in reply. Yondu nodded wearily before waving her over, patting the bed at his side, "Come on over here."

She stepped up to him with little steps, and with her closer Yondu could see she was shivering, fine trembles wracking her slight frame...

Yondu picked her up, placing the little girl on the bed in the middle of the nest of sheets and tangled covers, before tugging one up to tuck around her shoulders.

"Telepathy huh?" Anushka nodded, staring up at him miserably as she hid behind her tail and huddled under his sheets. "Your sister's pretty smart."

Anushka's expression crumpled before disappearing in her arms as she hid her face in despair.

And Yondu sat there in the dark beside her, the smell of ocean rain growing stronger, as he tucked her close under his arm. Letting her huddled there, offering what meager comfort he could as her small body shook with her heartbroken whimpers, and stayed there long after her tears stopped.

"Yondu?" Anushka said into the dark, hours later when he finally stood up.

"Yeah?" His voice was soft as he grabbed the datapad and turned to head out the door.  
"I want to go home."

"I know, sweetheart," Yondu sighed, "I know."

Stepping out of his room, he closed the door behind him hoping the girl would get some rest... Letting her sleep in his room was a risk, but he wouldn't begrudge her that. For all it was a poor apology for what he had done...

The ship would be arriving at Deo in a few days... and Yondu had some planning to do.


	7. Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway To Hell**

* * *

Chapter 7: Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks

 _The crew is in a bad way... adding more kids to the mix was never a good plan to begin with._

* * *

The Deo job had gone off without a hitch. Things had been quiet ever since. And not in a good way.

Yondu had come up with a plan to attack one of the temples, hidden in Deo's treacherous rocky desert mountains. The theocratic deonists worshipped 'enlightenment', and as a consequence their technology was vastly advanced to the junk that ravagers could usually get their hands on... and with their population being so reduced, it was unlikely they'd come across any real resistance.

The light from the ship's tractor-beam had ripped the stone roof from its fittings and the crew of the Eclector slid down on rappel ropes to the vulnerable monastery. Eager and ready for carnage. They descended upon the hidden temple like a ravaging horde. Treasures, they found aplenty and all manner of strange weaponry, as well as the alerted robotic sentries that defended them.

It was a vibrant, violent battle. And it was exactly what the crew of the Eclector had needed.

But...

In the midst of this chaos, Yondu managed to find the only sole living person in this part of the temple. A temple monk boy, skeletal thin with dark shiny maroon hair the color of blood, who had stood in deepest most protected part of the temple and stared in uncomprehending awe at the unexpected radiance... Before his eyes had rolled up in his head, and he collapsed where he stood in a dead faint.

And Yondu had shrugged and picked the boy up.

Slinging him over his shoulder where, where the teenager hung limp and light as a ragdoll. They were aiming to pick this place clean, no sense letting the boy stick around to be an eye witness and point the finger their direction, now...

No one protested. No one so much a fool to mention anything with the captain's arrow flying fast and hot in the air around their heads- destroying sentries and robotic turrets as he walked passed them, wreckage and hot slag barely brushing his feet. If the boy wasn't already in the captain's arms, someone might have been brave enough to mention the more permanent, and considerably easier solution to the problem. Some might have even been so bold as to turn their gun on him themselves.

As it was, no one dared say a word against the captain. Not even when he brought the boy on board, tucking him in the ship's medbay.

But that didn't mean it wasn't being thought.

And so things were quiet.  
For now.

But not much longer.

And the tension would break any day now.

Kraglin was sure of it.  
He may be young, a novice ravager and all, but he wasn't stupid. He could tell something big was coming, could feel it in the air like the electric hum that preceded one of Xandar's monstrous solar storms.  
In any case, Kraglin figured the same rules applied here. Keep low, always be aware of the nearest form of shelter, and for the love of god, if you had any sense of self preservation, do not get caught in the middle of a flair up.

He kind of wished Yondu would stop bringing on kids.  
He was sure there was a reason, and it was probably a good one cause cap'n doesn't do nothin without a damn good reason for it. But for every new kid brought on board it ratcheted up the tension another notch, and took the crew's ever growing resentment and hostility to the next level.

And now the captain was off ship again, and things were always a bit more leery without him around to whistle his crew into submission.  
He'd gone down to investigate a job. And after telling the crew this, and after making the necessary threats for good behavior and the consequences there in, Yondu had instructed Horuz to take care of the ship.  
And before he'd left he had taken aside Kraglin aside and told him to keep his head down and to take care of the kids until he got back.

Kraglin could manage to take care of himself well enough, but Cap'n was counting on him to keep an eye on the others, make sure they don't get into no trouble...  
A hard task as is, what with there being five of them on board now, and not made any easier because somebody had made it their life's mission to antagonize the ravager's crew with no regard for the atmospheric conditions on board. Kraglin didn't know if H'ekk was just that stupidly unaware enough that he didn't realize that he was only going to make things worse, or if he just didn't care...

This newest kid was a quiet one at least. More a teenager really, and older than Kraglin for sure. For all that was worth. Which wasn't much, considering that Kraglin could probably bench press him with ease. Deonists were apparently born stick thin, and only got taller and thinner with age.

But once T'rll had woken up from his self induced coma- and realized he haddn't ascended to some higher plane of existence- he'd just kinda gone into shock. Kinda just wandered the halls like a ghost, looking lost and betrayed. Apparently, he'd been raised to think he was supposed to be someone special. The deonists at the temple filling his head with mumbo-jumbo spirituality and treating him like he'd grow up to be some sort of messianic figure. Kraglin figured that was a good way to get you right fucked up in the head. And T'rll waking up to discover he'd been abducted by a hoard of filthy stinking ravager pirates instead of angelic godlike beings of light... Yeah, that probably didn't help his state of mind any.  
Either way, keeping track of them all was a full time job. Kraglin was thirtee-fourteen years old. There's only so much he can do.

"Oi, boy?" The voice yelled to be heard over the rattling thrum of the engine room, "You done yet or you dead in there?"

"Nearly done!" Kraglin hollered back. He was arms deep in the inner workings of one of the engine blocks, lying on his back and stuffed underneath it in a crack barely big enough to fit him. When the mechs' on board realized he'd had a head for machinery, Kraglin had quickly graduated from scrub duty to becoming their gopher. And they took shameless advantage of his small size while he still had it.

"Got it! Pull me out!" Kraglin yelled, and strong hands grabbed his boots to drag him out by his ankles. Covered in engine grease and filthy from head to toe, Kraglin sat up with a grin before holding up a crushed and mangled gear, "There's your problem."

"I'll be damned," said the ravager's head engineer, just as greasy with a gap toothed grin as he grabbed it, "How in th' hell'd that get there."

"Found it jamming up the pistons," Kraglin said, "Musta fallen in from above through one of the vents. It'd been locked up tight but I got it out."

"Attaboy son," He said, roughly scrubbing a filthy hand through Kraglin's short cut hair, "We'll make a mech-head out of you yet."

Kraglin ducked his head, shaking off the man's rough hand but kept the smile. The ravager, Flange, was rough around the edges and had a temper as short fused as any. But he was also one of the smarter grunt's aboard the Eclector, with a strong work ethic and could recognize a job well done. To that end, Flange was one of the nicer folks on board... Kraglin liked him.

"Oi Spanner," Flange turned to the other ravager in the hold, "Think Fast!"

"AH! Goddamnit you sonovabitch," Spanner, whose head had come up just in time to get beaned in the face with the mangled gear, cussed, "Fuck was that for, you bastard."

"Shut your whorehole, Spanner," Flange said grinning, "They's young ears around. You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Naw," Spanner said, rubbing his nose as a sly, pointed grin spread across his face, "Just your sister."

"Fuck you." Flange snarled, chucking a wrench in the other xandarian man's direction, "You leave Flux out of this. What she sees in your goddamn ugly ass face I'll never know."  
Yeah, engineering was the coolest.

"Take that," Flange continued talking over Spanner's witty rejoinder, and ignoring the accompanying rude gesture, "And get that shifty kid out of the vents before I turn this thing back on. No use scrubbin them if they're just gonna wind up covered in splattered kid-bits if he gets caught in the fans."

Nodding, Spanner took the wrench and banged on the vents until Willit came tumbling out of one of the grates as fast as he could. Landing on his knees, red faced and panting and covered head to toe in dust and grime.

"There ya'are," Spanner said, grabbing the back of Willit's coat and pulling him to his feet. He gave the boy a solid clap on the back, causing dust to poof into the air, "Good timing too, came outa' faster than' last by a minute at least."

"You said if you knocked you're gonna turn it back on," Willit said a little wild eyed as the men laughed, his features shifting agitatedly, "And I'd be dead six ways before I knew it if I didn't move it."

"An' that you would," Flange said nodding approvingly, "Engineering aint no playground kid. 's dangerous as hell and you treat everything like it's gonna kill you you'll've got a better chance of keeping all yer limbs attached."

"SO!" Flange shouted, clapping his hands together- the odd sound of metal meeting flesh as one palm met prosthetic, "You two've done good enough for now I suppose. Get out of here n' go getcha self some grub from the chow line. Or whatever, now scram brats I got work to do."

They moved to the door at a hot trot, Spanner already there as he punched the open code and took a peek down the hall.

"Coast looks clear," Spanner sniffed, casually running a hand over his face and smearing black smudge all the way across, "You boys git, an' go quick now. Y'might make it there in one piece."

"SPANNER!" came the holler over the increased noise of the engine room.

"I'M COMMIN'," He shouted back as he shooed the boys out, "Hold Your Goddamn Horses-"

The doors closed, and Kraglin and Willit jogged down the hall, moving fast and with purpose as they darted around corners, always on alert.

Engineering had become something of a safe zone for them, or at least for him and Willit. Kraglin was pretty sure that the girls made Flange distinctly uncomfortable when they were around, which was weird since the man had a sister of his own on board. Or maybe that explained it. Flux was a gunner and as tough as they come, and had the scars to prove it. They'd see her every now and then when she'd decide to hang around the engine room to harass her brother and make kissy-faces with Spanner. Frankly, she was intimidating as hell.

But whatever the case, no matter how gruffly kind the engineering lads were, Anushka and the little prickly pear weren't welcome there.

Kraglin made to round a corner, and came to an abrupt halt as he saw a large group of ravager's heading their way. Willit, hot on his heels, ran into his back as Kraglin blocked the way, pushing them out into the hall. With the choice of either fall on his face or barrel through it, Kraglin decided to take the chance and charge through. Maybe if they moved fast enough, they'd get through the crowd without incident.

Then he got a good look at their faces. Slag. Rejax. Pinhead. Mungo and Moron.

The worst offenders, and the ones most likely to set things off in a bad way. Shit.

Still, it was too late now, and so Kraglin picked up the pace.  
Luck was with them, as, although the ravagers snarled and snapped at their passing. The worst that they got from them this time was Rejax intentionally sticking out a large meaty foot in their way- causing Willit to eat shit and hit the ground hard enough to rattle his teeth in his head.

The group laughed uproariously at this, but didn't stop Kraglin from hauling Willit up by the back of his jacket. Back on his feet, they kept running down the hall to the fading sound of cruel jeers and mocking laughter, and were soon out of sight and hopefully out of mind just as quickly.

Kraglin breathed a sigh of relief, before looking at back at Willit. The boy's face a grimace as he rubbed at his chin, his skin belatedly tough and craggy looking, but he nodded back.

"M fine," Willit said, dropping his hand before jerking his head to the side hallway, "Let's just grab T'rll 'n H'ekk and get to the mess."

They split up, Willit turning to pound on the monk boy's door while Kraglin jogged ahead to do the same.

"Hey H'ekk! You Hungry? We're gonna go eat," Kraglin called pounding on the door to no response. He tried the door, locked. "H'ekk? H'ekk! Open up!"

"He coming?" Willit asked as caught up.

"He ain't answering." Kraglin said, "Probably just sulking. Or maybe it's a hunger strike, who knows with him." He turned from the door, and saw that Willit was empty handed, "What about you? Where's T'rll?"

Willit shook his head, his hair shifting to dark maroon over sharp birdlike features, "Door was open, so I checked his room to see if he was sleeping or somethin. Room was empty."

"Maybe he's gone ahead," Kraglin frowned before taking off, "Come on. Let's go to the mess and see if we can't catch up."

The mess hall was located as close to the absolute center of the ship as one could get. All halls lead to it, if you didn't get yourself lost in one of the looping rings, and from there you could pretty easily find your way to any other part of the ship. It was less of a hall, and more of a communal open area that the kitchen just happened to be close enough too that it made sense to move in tables and benches.  
It was a wide open area, almost arena-like. Metal worked stairs that led to a dangerous looking hallway that ringed the room. Open to one side with pipe railings giving the illusion of safety, while leaving most of the space free and clear for two floors down. It was directly below the the command deck and you stood in the center of the mess hall floor and looked up, you could see the flickering lights from the the observation room shining through the grated metal flooring.

Kraglin and Willit arrived at the mess from one of the overhanging hallways, and before descending Kraglin looked over the railing, scanning the crowd and looking for familiar faces to seek out or avoid.  
As a communal area for ravagers, it tended to be a bustling hub of activity as the men used their downtime to relax or shoot the shit. Gambling away their units while they ate or messed with their new deonist weaponry and toys.  
With the captain currently off ship, that meant the room was more packed than usual as the men took advantage of the opportunity to laze around without drawing his ire.

"Over there," Willit said nudging Kraglin's side with his elbow as he pointed to a far corner of the crowded room. "Come on."

Taking the stairs, Kraglin followed and soon spotted what the other boy had seen with a smile of relief. Anushka was seated at the far end of one of the last bench tables with Nettle on her lap as she tucked into her food and shyly smiled at the giant light blue ravager man sitting next to her. As a race, pheragots were notoriously peaceful and inoffensive... but they also stand at an average of ten feet tall with the sheer physical strength to bend a solid dura-steel rod into a pretzel with ease, so it was probably a good thing that they were slow to anger and abroad violence as much as they did.  
Gus was the tailor, and an excellent one at that. And due to the fact that he could sew a straight line, they also had him doubling up as the doctor as well. Not nearly as good, but he could splint a bone and his stitches were always the neatest. He was a shy sort and had the patience of a rock, and could easily hold down a drunk or pin down a thrashing ravager out of his mind with pain. If he wasn't the gentlest and kindest soul to ever grace the ravager hordes with his membership ever, Gus would certainly be a strong contender for the position, as far as Kraglin could tell. The girls couldn't have found a safer ravager to sit with.

"Hey Willit," Kraglin called grabbing the shifting boy's shoulder before they started weaving their way over, "I'm gonna go grab us some food. Go save me a seat by Gus would ya."

Willit nodded and watched as Kraglin disappeared into the crowd before turning to continue his way to the girls.

"Oi Horuz," From the floor above, the ravager manning the observation room yelled down through the floor, and Willit looked over to see the big grizzled man look up, meaty bits of food clinging to his beard, "Prox Alert. Captain's back an' dockin in Shuttlebay Nine."

Horuz waved his mug in response, before going back to his meal with a pointed look at the ravagers around him. The bustling activity of the mess hall noticeably increasing as the grumbling crew suddenly remembered that they had jobs they needed to be doing.

"Hi Willit," Anushka said, her shy smile brightening a bit as she saw him. The solid, reassuring presence of the quiet blue ravager beside her must have been doing her good because Willit rarely saw her smile at all.

Nettle in her arms turned to blink at him with her bright red eyes before reaching out to him. And Willit quickly shifted his skin to be more like Anushka's fur to protect himself from the little girls prickles- her haphazard telepathy painting his mind with the colors of her happiness at seeing him.  
"Hey," Willit said smiling back, before nudging Anushka's side, "Scoot your tush 'nush."  
He looked around as Anushka moved her tail out of the way so that he could sit, and at what he didn't see, "Hey, where's T'rll? He's here right? Krag and I were lookin' for him before we came here."

She shook her head, "I thought he was with you."

Willit opened his mouth to speak before being interrupted as Kraglin set down the two trays of food on the table before them.

"Hey Tailor," Kraglin said nodding to Gus as he sat down, "Thank's for watching the girls."

"Was no problem," Gus said, his voice a low deep rumble as he looked up from his food. He frowned, taking in the state the boys were in, "You are filthy. You should wash. Before eat food."

Kraglin shrugged, "It's just soup."

"Again?" Willit said with a small laugh under his breath and picking up his spoon.

"Yeah, so what," Kraglin said, giving Willit a hard scowl as the girls giggled, "I like soup."

At that moment a roar split the air,, The familiar sound of H'ekk's shrill screams cutting through the ambient noise of the mess hall, and Willit dropped his spoon with a clatter as all eyes turned to the sudden commotion. The milling ravagers halting in their tracks as they turned to converge around the scene, congregating into a loose mob in mere moments.

Kraglin's hair stood on end, and he new without a shadow of a doubt that the storm had broken.

"You go now." Gus said as he reached over and plucked Nettle out from Willit's arms, his broad face lined and tense with worry, "I watch girls. Go get captain. Go Now."

Kraglin and Willit glanced at each other, faces paling, before they were both up like a shot, weaving their way through the crowd in the opposite direction. Heading to the hangers where the shuttle bay was located at a full sprint. The sound of their running feet striking the metal floors ringing in their ears as the sound of raised voices fell behind them, drowned out by the hard pounding in their ears as heartbeat matched footfalls.

Moving as quick as they could they soon reached the hangar bay doors and Kraglin skidded to a halt in front of the access panel and reached out to punch in the code-

"Wait!" Willit cried grabbing at his arm and turned Kraglin around to face him. Frowning at the delay, Kraglin watched as Willit's normal orange complexion paled as his face twisted into a facsimile of his own panicked, wide eyed expression, before nodding.

"It'll do," Kraglin rolled his eyes as he nodded back. Priorities. He punched in the code and they were soon darting through and racing to the captain's shuttle, "Cap'n! Cap'n!"

They heard him before they could see him.

"-'s much as step a toe out of lie I'll space ya," Yondu snarled as he stepped out of his shuttle with his arms full of not one but two more kids, "You hear me? I had enough of you two troublemakers already. So yer on borrowed time as is."

The pair of twins, a boy and a girl, had four arms each and skin so dark blue it looked to be more like black. And most of all, they looked far too happy about being hauled aboard a ravager vessel than any kid had any right to be. High fiving each other behind the captain's back as he carried them about their waists and growled at them.

"Sir yes sir!" "Aye aye, Captain."

"Cap'n!" The boys cried, and Yondu looked up to see the twin faces of Kraglin as the boys stumbled to a halt before him.

"It's H'ekk again sir. You gotta come quick," Willit panted, as Kraglin talked over him, "Cap'n there's a fight started in the Mess Hall."

The lingering irritation in Yondu's eyes froze over as a cold hard expression sole over his face. And he turned to address his two new charges.

"Twin One-" "I'm Yamakel." "-Twin Two-" "I'm Yadiva."

"An' I give a shit," Yondu said as he dropped the pair on their ass, "You two do as you're told for once in your goddamned life, and fuckin behave got it. Kraglin!"

"Sir!" He stood upright from where he'd been bent over panting with an automatic salute.

"Watch the Ya-Ya twins an' keep them out of trouble," Yondu barked before storming at off at a fast pace in the direction of the mess, his fin glowing ominously, "Tie them up if you have to, just see to it. I got bigger shit to deal with now."

"Yes sir," Kraglin said after him, before turning to look at the two new kids as they picked themselves up off the floor. The two dark twins shot each other a loaded glance, before flashing their teeth in identical expressions of rebellious mischievousness- and took off after the captain.

"Shit!" Kraglin swore, and grabbed Willit before giving chase.

In the mess hall, the crew was gathered like a mob around the fight.  
"Liar! You take that back!" H'ekk screamed, his voice cracking as he kicked and clawed at the man holding him up by the front of his shirt for all his worth.

Another had his arms full of the maroon haired boy as T'rll struggled in the arms of another from the sidelines, his thin white face almost translucent with fear and and panic.

"If they were commin' for you they'd of been here already," The man, Rejax, gave the boy a hard shake and a snarl, "Them's the facts and you know it.

"Face it boy," The green brutish man's cruel smile was all teeth, "There ain't nobody in this whole fuckin' galaxy give a good goddamn 'bout you."

"The Shi'ar will come for me! They will!" H'ekk cried, angry tears beginning to drip down his face as he continued thrashing weakly, "They'll come and they will kill you all!"

"Only one fixin' on gettin' killed here is you. I've a mind to pluck you clean and toss you to the cook for eatin' for all the trouble you'd been."

The men roared their approval at the idea. Cheering and stomping their feet with the electric energy of a mob set on violence.

"No!" T'rll cried, slipping free of Moron's grasp like an eel before bodily throwing himself at the man holding the younger boy aloft, futilely scrabbling at the man with his long boney fingers, only to be disdainfully shoved away to the mobs hideous mocking laughter.

"Stop!" T'rll shouted, and proved that he wasn't so stupid as the young teen had fallen away from the gunner brute with his hands on Rejax's new high tech blaster that they had stolen from the temple. The sharp whine of it arming humming over the crowd.

"I'll Shoo-" T'rll had barely gotten it pointed in their direction, before Slag stepped forward and snatched it from the boys hands and backhanded him with it. Sending the the young monk boy flying where he hit the floor like a sack of bricks.

The crew roared their approval, the mob baying for blood.

A shrill whistle pierced the noise like a whip crack.

The yaka arrow sliced through the crowd before any of the crew had sense of mind to duck out of the way of the red flash, as it flew to snap through Rejax's arm. Bellowing in pain, the green thuggish rejak dropped H'ekk into a heap on the floor as he clutched at his arm in agony. But the arrow wasn't done with him yet, as a staccato triplet sent it flying through the back of both of the man's knees.  
The arrow zipped around the now kneeling man, before grinding to an abrupt and sudden halt.

Where it vibrated and glowed a deep threatening red just under the man's chin.

"Rejax," Yondu said. And the arrow drew tight against his jugular as Rejax was forced to look up and watch as the crowd parted before the captain. Shrinking away as the centaurian strode forward, his boots thudding hard in the sudden crowded silence. His fin burning bright and a cold murderous gleam in his red eyes.

"Give me one damn good reason why I shouldn't end you where you stand."


	8. ACDC - Problem Child

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway to Hell**

* * *

Chapter 8: AC/DC - Problem Child

 _The crew has hit critical mass. Yondu is gonna kick some ass._

* * *

The crew was frozen, held in place as the tense standoff filled the air with an electric hum.

"If you value your sorry excuse for a living," Yondu growled, "You won't make me ask twice boy."

Rejax glared up at the captain, teeth bared in a pained grimace as hate warred with fear flashing in his eyes. Snorting like a bull as he panted on the ground, his hand a pained claw as black blood seeping from under his hand where he clutched his arm, oozing out from under him where he kneeled on the floor.

"We was goin' to our shift," Rejax began his voice a low growl, "Makin' our way to the bridge when we heard some sorta scurrying in the vents that don't sound usual. So, we decided to check it out," His tone shifted, suddenly mocking and cruel, "And lo' an' behold, what do we find...

"These two," Rejax snarled through clenched teeth, his beady eyed glare pinning the two boys on the floor, " _Fuckin around_ in the communication wires."

The silence broke as the crew muttered aggressively, and Rejax continued, "Them brats aint got no business bein' there. So we hauled them out on their ass when th' Hell child done near flat out confessed to tryin to hack the ship. Started screamin up all sorts o' bloody murder- And we don had enough."

Letting go of his wounded arm, the rejak reached up to the ravager next to him and grabbed a fistful of the man's shirt, dragging him down as Rejax struggled to leverage himself up off of his ruined knees. The glowing arrow digging at the man's throat with every failed movement.

"Me n' th' Boys," Rejax's snarl turned up, a vicious smile, "Well, we figured it was high time someone put these brats in their place. Teach em a lesson permanent-like they won't soon forget. Make an example of em. Show em what you get when you _fuck_ around on a _ravager_ ship."

The muttering kicked up a notch, and Yondu flicked the two ravager's flanking Rejax a pointed look. Mungo and Pinhead grabbed the rajak by the elbows, hauling upright and restraining him.

"Last I remember you ain't the captain," Yondu said lowly as a low whistle drew the arrow back under Rejax's chin. "An that ain't your call to make. If anybody's making examples of anyone on this ship it's gonna be me-"

"Yeah?" Rejax interrupted him baring teeth, "Whatchu gonna do about it?"

There was a collective inhale from the entire crew at this blatant challenge. The ravager's shifting agitatedly at the power play now in motion. And as he struggled jerkily in his friend's hands, the green rajak thug's snarl moved into a vicious grin as he felt the shifting tides move in his favor.

"I'll tell you what you gonna ain't gonna do shit." Rejax said deliberately, a crazed look in his rage-wild eyes, "You gonna do nothin' Yondu. Ya know why. Cause you gone fuckin _soft_."

"Bet you take one look at them dumb ass baby faces an' you go all _squishy_ inside," he said in a sort of sing-song mocking tone, "An' next thing we know we got another one o' your strays treating' the place like a goddamn nursery and runnin' around like they own the place."

The crew's muttering had increased into a dull roar, bubbling over with lingering resentment and hostility as some nodded in agreement as others jeered and hissed from the sidelines. H'ekk cringed away from the looming crowd, face pale with fright as his eyes glared death and daggers to mask his honest terror.

"More n' half of them don't' even pull their own weight," Rejax spat, "Fuckin _freeloaders_ the lot of them."

"They ain't freeloaders," a voice cut through the din.

Horuz stepped forward, drawing all eyes as he moved into the empty space between Yondu and Rejax. His pointed glare quelling the mob briefly before he turned his eyes on the captain.

"They're cargo," Horuz said into the sudden profound silence, "Ain't they captain."

There was a beat of absolute stillness, and Yondu closed his eyes just for a second as the crew exploded into a riot of noise. Voices shouting one over the other, each clamoring to be heard.  
"But the code-" "-Why didn't you say so!" "-What's he talkin about-" "- dealin' with kids-" "-my share!" "-s that why-" "-How many units for em-" "-children ain't right-" "-s secret about it-"

"The hell you on about, Horuz," Yondu said, his eyes open to fix his acting first mate with a hard cold expression, "You know ravager's don't deal in kids."

"Sure we don't" Horuz laughed, and leaned towards Yondu with a cunning look in his eye, "And that rich asshole we done robbed keeps calling you back just to cry for his units back.

"Only it weren't a robbery now was it, Captain," he said stepping forward grab Yondu's shoulder, "An' that last big score weren't so free now was it.

"These brats we done been pickin up, they ain't no strays or freeloaders," Horuz said moving to stand at Yondu's side in a show of support as he looked at the gathered crew.

"They're a payin' job. And y'all fucks better keep yer hands off the merchandise or you got another thing comin to ya-."

"Now you listen here an' you listen good," Yondo turned on Horuz, yanking his arm from the other man's grasp. His red eyes hard as he spoke through grit teeth, "These kids ain't _fuckin_ _cargo._ "

Horuz frowned at the captain's brush off, his expression thunderous as the crew jostled one another, moving and shifting agitatedly with the tense build up of volatile energy.

"Captain, we'd been mighty patient with ya up until now," Horuz growled, the sound rolling through the room as crew echoed the first mate. "But if you got another reason you been jerking us around, we'd sure like to hear it."

The ravagers joined the chorus, a raucous refrain. The crew rapidly degenerating back into a belligerent mob with every passing moment.

"Th' fuck we even here for, if not for a job." Horuz stated, arms swinging wide to the crews agreeing jeers, before his eyes flashed and his lips curled into a snarl.

"An' if it weren't a pick up what the fuck are _they_ doing here?!"

An accusing finger rose to jab over the captain's shoulder, directing all eyes to the entrance. Yondu's head turned to whip over his shoulder to see the blue-black twins standing in the doorway, utterly oblivious to the obvious danger and gleefully gawking at the brewing mutiny before them. A split second later saw Kraglin's arms reached out, grabbing the twins by the back of the shirt and dragging them off to the side and out of sight.

The crew erupted into proper riot of sound as the crew broke. The mob in full rebellion.

"I went down to _find_ us a job, not _do_ one," Yondu barked, pitching his voice to carry over the deafening noise as the crew continued to bellow and shout. "And they ain't fuckin' cargo either. They're _stowaways_."

The explanation barely made an impact in reaction to the crew's uproar and Yondu was ignored as he lost all control of his crew. The ravager's out of their mind with rage and hostility. Yondu's sharp whistle barely registered as he drew his arrow back towards him, scanning the mob for the first aggressive move.

"Stowaways!" Rejax bellowed as he staggered forward, no longer pinned. The green man reached over to snatch the deo blaster out of Slag's tense grip, "I'll show you what we do to stowaways-"

The blaster went off, the prevailing electric hum that had permeated the room having reached an ear piercing note as it was unceremoniously squeezed. The bolt of overcharged molten plasma streaked out blast a hole in the ceiling- sending a spray of electric sparks as the bolt exploded in the observation room with a booming crash.

And as one, the mob descended into chaos as the ravager's all went for their guns.

Rejax was dead before he hit the floor, the wounded man no match for Yondu's yaka arrow, and Yondu was quickly in motion- dodging the hail of scattered fire as his crew turned on him and each other. The centaurian man's whistle flinging his arrow high and fast as he threw himself into weaving dodges and rolls across the floor- the edge of his coat gaining new holes from each new close shave.

From the center of the fight, Yondu's eyes darted around the room, trying to take in everything at once- trying to take an accounting of everyone, and every kid in the area. The flashing lights and rush of adrenaline making everything distorted and confusing. He caught a glimpse of the giant blue pheragot huddled in a far corner, arms wrapped around the young girls as he tried to shield them with his massive bulk- unwilling to fight but unable to leave.

A sharp cry drew Yondu's attention back to the middle of the fray, his arrow flipping back with nary a thought. H'ekk had been caught as he'd been scrabbling back on his hands, frantically trying to squirm out from under the fallen rajak, wild eyed with fright and honest terror. The boy was hauled up with a vicious yank as Moron grabbed the boy around the neck and lifted him up so his feet dangled in the air. Before him Slag snarled, the gray sagittarian livid at the fall of his friend, and with the still glowing deo blaster back in his hands, leveled it at the boy's face.

"Say your prayers Hellchild," Slag hissed with a murderous grin, "Empire can't save you now-"

A brilliant red streak cut him off, eyes crossing as the arrow pierced through the amphibious ravager's head just under the man's fleshy head fin. Slag dropped, and Moron was soon to follow as the captains warbling call sent the arrow looping around H'ekk to stab through the moroni's heart before flying on in a flash of light to thin out the ranks of the rioting crew.

Falling to his feet, H'ekk staggered back, limbs shaking and eyes wide as he stared at his attackers, suddenly dead before him. For all his rage and bluster, the nine year old boy had not gotten far into his warfare training and his first brush with actual death and violence left him panicking with fear. Reeling back the boy fled, blindly bolting for the nearest exit.

From the doorway, the heads of the twins peeked out every now and then- their dark faces alight with exhilaration as Kraglin and Willit struggled to make them keep their heads down.

"Look out!" Willit cried, pulling the boy twin out of the way as H'ekk barreled past- another enraged ravager hot on his heels. Pinhead halted at the doorway- giving up the fleeing boy for the easy targets before him- and brandished his pistols at children with pointed leer.

He never got the chance to fire, as the bolt of red smacked into the spine faced man, going in one side and out other other. Pinhead fell, his weapons clattering to the floor at his side- scooped up seconds later by the enterprising twins.

"No wait, stop!" Kraglin cried futilely as the pair darted into the brawling room. Sharing an exasperated and slightly paniced look, Willit and Kraglin chased after them. Ducking their heads and weaving through the chaos in starts and stops before catching up with the twins as they toppled a table over for cover.

"Are you crazy!?" Kraglin cried as he knelt among broken plates and scattered food, eyes wide as he stared at the insane new kids the captain had brought on board. "You can't be in here you're gonna get us all killed!"

"You always this much of a stick in the mud?" The girl, Yadiva, said smiling cheekily as she checking the pistols for ammo before passing one over to her brother. "Where's your sense of adventure!"

"No Girl! Come back!"

"There!" Willit said, pointing to where the low rumbling bellow had come from. Across the room, the children could see Anushka hiding under one of the other tables still standing, scanning the moving crowd with a scared and determined look on her face before darting as fast as she could to another hiding spot- moving deeper into the fight instead of farther away.

"Fuck!" Kraglin said wide eyed as he grabbed frantically at his short hair, "What is she doing?!"

"I think," Willit frowned, his eyes shifting as his face became sharp and birdlike once more, training his eyes on the girl before darting to see what she'd seen, "I think she's going after T'rll!"

Kraglin looked over, and saw that he was right. The older deo boy was in crumpled in a boneless heap on the floor in the thickest part of the fighting and, despite her obvious fear, Anushka was very deliberately making her way closer and closer to the still unconscious teen.

"She's gonna get caught!" Kraglin cried, seeing the ravager's fighting around her, before grabbing Willit and darting that way as well, "We gotta go get her!"

"Cover us," Willit called back to the twins as he was dragged away, and was rewarded with their manic grins and the sound of arming pistols.

The boys dove into the mess of ravagers, ducking and dodging as best they could. The red streaked arrow whistled over their heads and gunfire rained around them in a shower of sparks. The deafening sound of men bellowing and howling in rage and in pain all around them as they called out to the girl one step ahead of them, trying to be heard over the noise.

"Anushka, Anu- Wait, No! Anushka," Kraglin cried, just missing her as he reached the girl just in time for her to dart away again. Leaping out into the final stretch of open space before her to reach the fallen boy- only to reel back as she nearly crashed into the ravager standing there.

Mungo the Kamado was a solid wall of muscle and not many smarts. And the space she'd unwittingly darted into had been cleared out by the sheer force of his berserker rage. He swung his makeshift club of twisted metal at anything that came near and T'rll at his feet had been ignored only due to the fact that he was as still as death. That ignorance left the delicate teen in danger of being trampled by the same blind rage that was now directed at the little girl before him.

"Get down!" Willit yelled just as Kraglin grabbed hold of Anushka, pulling them both down and out of the way of Mungo's wild swing as he roared, frothing at the mouth in rage. The mace whistling in the air over their heads as they ducked, feeling it swoosh by at a hairsbreadth.

Mungo's second roar cutting off with a sickening gurgle, the whistling they'd heard not the weapon they'd thought. Mungo's mace dropped nervelessly from his hand as he reached up to clutch at where Yondu's arrow had torn out the Kamadonian's throat- only moments before the hail from the twins cover fire peppered the giant's torso with holes.

"Kraglin!" The captain yelled as the massive man fell back with a deliberate thud, "Get them out of here!"

With a nod, Kraglin darted forward and scooped up T'rll as Willit grabbed Anushka by the hand. Together they dragged them back the way they came- the light of the arrow whipping back and forth around the room as it mowed down the ravagers threatening the captain as well as the kids.

Yondu snarled as he caught his arrow only to fling it into the air again, his eyes darting around as his mind had moved into the place that was all instinct and less thought. This fight had already gone on too long. Keeping track of the status of the different factions of ravagers involved in this brawl was driving him to distraction- And having to watch out for the idiot children that haddn't the sense to get out from under foot had his heart clamoring with that familiar ring of terror.

Keeping an eye on them, Yondu whistled his arrow to flip back towards the twins as they were menaced again. Only for the ravager to be dropped by Flux, the gunner stepping up to cover the trigger happy Ya-Ya twins, oblivious to the threat that had snuck up behind them. Yondu caught the xandrian woman's eye, receiving her sharp nod before they directed their attention to the fight at hand again.

Another shout and a hail of gunfire, Yondu turned to catch sight of his acting first mat. The grizzled man huddled behind one of the toppled benches, reloading while the men beside him laid down cover fire.

With his arrow making the circuit around the room, Yondu had a few moments time to consider if the man had earned death or not. While the man haddn't started the mutiny, his actions had not helped it any. And while he seemed to still have the horusian's support, Yondu wasn't sure that he still wanted it if the other man was so willing to call children cargo and be done with it.

Mind made up, Yondu narrowed his eyes and whistled sharply through his teeth, and the arrow picking up speed gave a sudden turn-

And was snatched out of the air.

"Yondu Udonta!"

Yondu whirled around, empty handed, as the fighting around him abruptly came to a halt.

And in the sudden silence that followed, the remaining ravager's aboard the Eclector could finally hear what had been drowned out before. And what the ravager above them in the observation room had been too dead to let them know.

The sound of one hundred ravager ships jumping into the space around them. The thudding booms resounding through space like ominous rolling thunder.

Standing in the entryway to the mess hall, silhouetted in light, was gathered a cadre of ravager's. All of them elites and armed to the teeth, having boarded unnoticed and unopposed. To one side of the entrance stood a familiar plutonian, and in the crystal man's grasp he held H'ekk by the arm. The boy, held by the scruff like a naughty kitten, dangling once more as he sulked and glared at all around him.

And before them all stood Stakar Ogord. The centaurians arrow quivering in his outstretched fist.

"On accusations of breaking the code," Stakar pronounced with grave stone faced solemnity, "The one-hundred ravager clans have been called to cast judgement...

"Yondu Udonta. You have are to take a seat at the table," and the first sign of emotion flickered across his face. A quite anger. A betrayed rage.

"And you better have a _damn good_ answer."


	9. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Cry For The Badman

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway to Hell**

* * *

Chapter 9: Lynyrd Skynyrd - Cry for the Badman

 _Stakar has arrived on the scene. Yondu has some explaining to do._

* * *

It was a rare thing that could call the hundred clans together.

Turf wars, infighting, and typical state of casual lawlessness generally made such a gathering ill advised at best. As a band of one hundred disparate clans of rowdy roving space pirates, it was generally safer for all involved for there be as much space between them as physically possible. And out amongst the stars, that was a hell of a lot of space. The things that could actually motivate the ravager clans to risk bringing their people together, short of all out war, were few and far between...

One of those things was Stakar Ogord.

When forces of the Badoon Brotherhood began sending their legions to invade and conquer, Stakar rallied the ravagers under his command, a mere three ships at the time, and brought the fight to them. Leading the charge against an enemy that was not expecting resistance to come in the form of the reckless vicious attacks from notorious space pirates. Inspired by his actions, the rest of the ravager fleet joined his cause, and together they turned the tides against the Badoon.

Unsatisfied with merely turning the enemy away, Stakar gave chase and lay siege on the enemy's ships. And in the process, came into possession of the badoon warships and their allied kree vessels and all the resources there in.

The living plunder. The spoils of war. The countless captured slaves wielded as cannon fodder.

And Stakar Ogord freed each and every one of them.

He broke their chains and lifted them up, declared them free and that they would never be bound again. For some that was enough, and they left the pirates for new horizons to claim their lives as their own. For others, for those slaves who had known slavery far longer than the idea of freedom, the ravagers took them under their wing. They gave them a place amongst the horde, and showed them how to live under their own will. How to demand from the universe what was rightfully theirs, and gave them the will to fight for it when the unfeeling universe said no.

Before Stakar Ogord, the ravagers were a nuisance. Pirates, smugglers, lowlife criminals.

Under Stakar Ogord they became a legion for freedom. An army beholden to none but their own.

Now they were one hundred clans strong, and over half of their number was composed of former slaves. Those stolen from their captors and freed at the hands of the ravagers grew fierce and flourished. They became captains, terrible and great, leading clans under their reclaimed name. To spit in the eye of the law that had failed them, and become a persistent thorn in the side of all that should seek to strike them down. To be ruthless and merciless, and leave none alive to stand against them.

And above all else, they upheld the code. Because the code was theirs. It came from them.

It was the promise Stakar first made when the ravager's struck the first slaves free. It was what was sworn by all the ravagers that followed his lead. It was the vow made by every slave that took up the ravager way. It made them strong, filled them with passion and drive and righteous anger.

It was an oath that the hordes of freedom would never break, and in the years that passed, had never broken.

Never broken... until now.

They were gathered in a massive cargo hold, one that was empty enough and large enough to hold all the ravagers that had come together. One hundred captains and their first mates, if they were not needed to keep order on their home ships while the captain was away. And with them their cadre of ravagers, the core groups that the captains would not chose to be without. Limited to a trusted few as, for all the room was large enough, ravagers prize their elbow room... especially under these circumstances when tempers were sure to run high.

Despite the cramped quarters, they were arrayed around the room in casual casual groups and cliques, the remaining cargo crates left in the room treated as seating where the ravagers sat and slouched in irreverent postures. And over the the underlying muttering of voices, a tense hush held sway, betraying the grave seriousness of the events at hand.

In a rough circle of space, the ravagers gave a respectful distance to the center stage.

In flanking positions on either side stood Martinex and Charlie-27, the trusted right and left hand. The higher vantage point granted to the one suited to keeping the crowd under control, Krugarr sat curled up and perched on a crate between them. The sorcerer's powerful magic could end fights as fast as they started. Set on a crate of her own, Mainframe hummed and ticked anxiously, her battle body left behind in favor of greater mobility.

Aleta Ogord leaned against a far crate, arms crossed and shoulder to shoulder with her first mate: a woman of rough beauty and undoubtedly as dangerous as she. While no longer wearing the colors of Ogord, Aleta stood near by within the respectful distance- lending her support despite the long separation and commanding a clan of her own.

And in center of that circle of space stood the commanding form of Stakar Ogord.

Stone faced and arms crossed, his face so unreadable it was almost telling. That behind that hard chiseled non-expression, lurk such a turmoil of emotions he dared show none at all. And with that same hard unreadable expression, he stared down at the man sitting on the crate before him, placed there at his own hand.

Yondu Udonta, his protege. Fond of him since day one, when they'd hauled him out of the smoldering wreck of a kree slave barge only for him to fall upon his former captors intent on ripping them limb from limb- completely disregarding his own wounds and lacerated face. And when the kree had been turned into a bloody pulp, Stakar had struck his chains and welcomed him into the ravager life. And Yondu had thrived, growing powerful and clever. Powerful because he was clever. Both his head and heart used to wicked effect with the guts and daring to take on any foe.

Stakar had been so proud of him. The son he never had.

Yondu sat on the edge of a crate, kicked to the center of the room moments before the centurion had been frogmarched to it.  
Feet flat on the ground, Yondu perched there with a slumped sullen posture very reminiscent of those early days. Hands hanging between his knees as if they were bound in chains. The set of his shoulders signaling defeat while the hard line of his jaw gave away to a stubborn defiance, a smoldering fire burning in his red eyed glare.

Looking at him now, Stakar wondered where it all went wrong.

He'd tried to keep an eye on him, ear to the ground for word of what the Udonta Clan was up to out amongst the stars. The usual tales of lawlessness and robberies coming from their way had set Stalker's mind at ease, knowing that whatever trouble they got into Yondu could handle it...

But then the rumors suddenly changed. The Eclector, which had always maintained a general roving presence, abandoned the borders of its burgeoning territory and instead was now suddenly careening through space, charting a course through the stars that was dangerously erratic.

This change did escape notice, and as those ravagers that took note wondered, ever enterprising and opportunistic. Stakar listened closely to those rumors, seeking an ounce of truth in tales that grew more outlandish and worrisome as time went on... Dismissing all as hearsay and ignoble lies.

And then Horuz called. And it turned out the worst rumors were not so outlandish at all...

Stakar haddn't wanted to believe it. He'd been outraged and appalled at the suggestions Horuz was making, the implications hiding behind half said statements and disconcerting facts. He'd bellowed, and shouted, called Horuz a liar to his face and hung up on him...

But then he had time to think. And the more Stakar thought about it the more sense it made.

For all that he'd tried to impress the young centaurian with their code of honor, the boy had always been reckless. Greedy. Weak in the face of temptation, doing whatever he wanted and whatever it took to get it and damn the consequences.

But to traffic in children.

Yondu knew how unspeakable that was. Had been a victim of it himself. That he would _knowingly_ do such a thing...

Stakar had to know the truth. He had gathered those under his command and turned the Reaver Fleet to pay Yondu a visit. Praying that he would find nothing more than a treacherous first mate and a word about the Eclector's unspoken goal.

Instead they were greeted by the face of a terrified child, and a crew caught in the throws of mutiny.

"It has been near ten years," Stakar began, his low voice instantly silencing the muttering of the restless crowd.

"Ten years since last the clans were called together. But it is without any joy that I called you all here today. For today," he said, speaking to the crowd but never breaking eye contact with the slumped defiant stare of the one seated before him, "The table has been set for judgement. It is with a heavy heart that I say that one of our own, _one of my own clan_ ," Stakar struck his chest over his heart, a pained ravager salute before throwing his hand down, "Has decided to turn his back on our ways and has shunned all that we stand for."

"Yondu Udonta," Stakar's stone faced facade cracked, lips curling in a tight angry expression, "Sits before the judgement table on accusations of breaking the ravager code. Taking money for souls and selling children as cargo."

A hiss rose from the crowd. A shifting, rippling wave of surprise and brewing outrage. Reaching for old scars as they muttered and growled.

"The kids ain't cargo." The hard statement cut through the chatter as Yondu pitched his voice to be clearly heard, drawing all eyes his way.

"You can lie to yourself all you want, Yondu," Stakar growled, taking an aggressive step towards him, "But don't you _dare_ lie to me."

"The way Horuz tells it," Stakar continued with a jab of his finger, "You been to seven planets in as many weeks. Managed to pick up a kid from near each and every one of them. And you wanna try and say again that you ain't doing it on purpose."

"I _said_ they weren't cargo," Yondu said flatly, a stubborn tilt to his chin as his lips curled into an angry, biting sneer of his own.

"Like hell they ain't," Stakar barked taking two more strides towards the younger man until they were near nose to nose, "You know goddamn well that Ravagers don't deal in kids, and yet now you got _eight_ of them on your ship. So you tell me the straight truth, right here and now. Did someone contact you and tell you to pick up those kids?"

There was a sharp pointed silence, the two men locked in willful glares.

"Yeah," Yondu broke the silence with a short grunt and a huff, eyes flashing, "I was."

"You take money for them?" Stakar asked not missing a beat as the ravager crowd rocked with the blatant admission.

"Yeah I did," Yondu said again with a sharp jerk of his head, his posture lined with tension.

"An' you got the _gall_ ," Stakar roared over the crowd, grabbing at the front of Yondu's jacket with both hands and yanking him to his feet, "To stand before all of us here today, with our flames on your chest, and call yourself a ravager. Like you ain't just become no better than the slavers we freed you from. The hell you think you are?

"You take a job for kids, Yondu? When you know," Stakar shook him, lifting Yondu's feet from the ground, " _You know_ that goes against everything I've taught you. You've broken the code. The one thing I thought you would never fail to keep. And done it with the one thing I never thought you'd stoop so low to do."

 _"_ _I said they ain't cargo cause they ain't ,"_ Yondu shouted, shoving Stakar hard enough to rock him back.

"Call me a slaver again an' I'll cut the words right out a' your throat," he growled, eyes flashing, "These kids ain't cargo _and they never will be_. I may be picking them up but they are _never_ gonna be delivered to the sonovabitch that called me."

"How the hell do you expect us to believe that," Stakar growled back with another pointed jab of his fists still clenched in Yondu's jacket, "After everything you been admitting too. You ain't delivering, the hell you even picking 'em up for?"

"Cause if I don't someone else will!" Yondu bellowed, throwing Stakar's arms off of him and making him take a step back.

"You wanna know what's going on?" Yondu snarled into the tense silence of his outburst, "Fine, I'll show you."

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the data pad, tossing it to the ground before them. It clattered loudly as it slid across the metal floor to stop near Aleta's feet. Her first mate slowly bent to pick it up, eyes flicking between the standoff and her captain.

"Man calls himself Ego," Yondu began.

"The name fits, but he sure the hell aint any kind of natural man. Don't rightly know what he is but I know that he's rich as hell and goddamn powerful like you wouldn't believe. And he's old. Older than anything has any fucking right to be and he's a fucking twisted sick sonovabitch.

"Didn't know that at first," Yondu said, scoffing at himself as he finally broke eye contact to drop his head and turn away, "Ego, he likes to paint himself a charitable sort of charismatic fuck. Good at it too. He'd have to be to get away with what he's been doing for so long...

"He called up and spun a story about how his past years of promiscuity had finally caught up with him. Gotten himself in a family way, and wouldn't i do him a good dead and bring his lil baby home to dear ol' dad." He barked a short wretched laugh, "Well now that didn't sit quite right with me. Cause what sort o' rich an' powerful man like that wants a _ravager_ anywhere near his kin.

"Let alone seeks one out for the job when _ravagers don't deal in kids,"_ yondu snarled the words with a pointed glare.

"So I played along," Yondu said with a tip of his head, "Figured I'd figure out what that fucker was after if he kept thinkin' me dumb an' greedy enough to drop the shit and get what he really wanted. Maybe even rob him a bit, if he was gonna be so free with his money."

The room was deathly silent as they listened, watching as Yondu huffed another self loathing laugh before putting his hands in his pockets and turning away from Stakar once more, "Well it worked. An' I was right. An' it was worse than I imagined."

"Ego wasn't lying. He wanted his kids and he's got em scattered all over the galaxy. Gave me that list there full of all the details. What planet they're on, when they were born, what their family's like an' who's keepin em now. Handed all that over to to a man like me easy as you please."

"Captain," Aleta's first mate cut in, eyes wide and face pale as she held out the datapad to her, "There are over _two thousand_ kids on this list."

"That's right," Yondu said over the collective inhale as shock rippled through the crowd, "And that's just what's on the list he gave me."

"Way he's said he's been at it," Yondu said, "Ego's probably got more of his spawn out there. Older and younger. But that list there," he jerked his head at the datapad, "Them two thousand kids to pick up. Ain't a single one of them reach the age of maturity yet. And I got no idea how he's doin' it or why, but more'n' half of those kids ain't got no mother no more. If they got anybody looking after them at all."

"I ain't got a clue what he wants with so many kids," Yondu turned to face Stakar again, staring him down. "But I _know_ it ain't for anything good. He want's them young and he want's them vulnerable.

"An' if he'll hire scum like me to get 'em," Yondu took a step forward with a vicious jab at his own chest, "If I don't grab them first, what's to say that he won't just get some other greedy jackass to do his dirty work for him. He wants these kids and he's gonna find some way to get his hands on them.

"An' the moment that happens," he said, pointing deliberately, "Those kids. They'd be as good as dead- and that blood would be on _my_ hands. Cause there ain't anybody living on Ego's planet but Ego, and he don't give a damn about anything or anybody that isn't him and what he wants."

"So Yeah, I broke the code," Yondu said, nearly shouting throwing his arms out at his sides, "I took a dirty job an' filthy money cause I _knew_ that if I didn't those kids would still be on his list. An' he'll get ahold of those kids _over my cold dead body."_

In the ringing silence that followed, Yondu held Stakar's gaze in a defiant stare down a moment longer.

"You got any proof for this claim," Stakar asked finally.

"No." Yondu ground out reluctantly, a resigned slump to his shoulders, "No I ain't got any proof. Just a list of two thousand kids and a gut feeling about a egotistical jackass."

And Yondu dropped his head with a hard exhale and turned his back on him.

"You all can choose to believe me or not," Yondu said, "Facts are what they are. And If you wanna see that as breaking code, then you gotta do what you gotta do. Exile me. I could give a damn."

The words came hard and determined, as his shoulders came up and back straightened. Stubborn and defiant to the last, "Cause Ravager or not, I'm gonna keep doing' this. I'm gonna git these kids as far away from that baby-killing psychopathic fuck as I can, if it is the last thing I do.

"And whether you approve of it or not, I will _always_ wear my flames with pride."

And head held high, Yondu Udonta walked away from the judgement table.

Leaving Stakar behind to deal with the chaos left in his wake.


	10. Eagles - Desperado

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway to Hell**

* * *

Chapter 10: Eagles - Desperado

 _While the ravagers deal with the fallout, Yondu pulls himself together and wrangles some kids._

* * *

Yondu walked away.

He walked until the sound of raised angry voices fall behind him. The words fading into an incomprehensible murmur muffled by steel walls, the refracted echos traveling through the vents.  
He walked with a heavy steadfast pace, and walks until he can walk no more.

The straight hall ends in a cross corridor and Yondu strides all the way across to the far wall, lined with windows, before coming to a sudden and abrupt halt. Staring at his reflection in the glass, his posture stiff and breathing hard he raises a clenched fist...

Only to drop it heavily against the glass, the strength leaving him. Exhaling heavily as the tension slowly bleeds out of him. Yondu closes his eyes as he drops his head to rest against the window. A quiet chink as his fin makes contact with the cold glass. And he opens his eyes again to stare past his reflection to the stars beyond.

That... had gone about as well as to be expected.

He'd known it was only a matter of time. He'd been expecting it. Anticipating the day that Stakar found out and he was exiled again with a resigned anxious dread.

And through that dread Yondu had held the tenuous hope that perhaps this time it wouldn't be so bad.

This time he had foreknowledge on his side. He wouldn't be blindsided this time. He knew what it would look like when they found out, what the consequences of his betrayal would be. And this time it was a true and honest choice that led him to break the code. No manipulation. No looking the other way. No denying what he was doing and what would come of it. This time he knew what he was doing, and _this time_ he was doing it for the _right_ reasons.  
And Yondu had wrapped that truth around his heart like an armor and steeled himself, resolute in the face of inevitability, and thought himself prepared.

Well he hadn't been.

And instead of being rational and cool, instead of taking the opportunity to _fucking explain himself,_ Yondu had lost his temper. He'd said too much and not enough and now it was too fucking late to do anything at all.

But to live through it again... Damn, if it didn't still hurt.

To watch for a second time as Stakar's faith in him was shattered. To see shame and betrayal staring back at him through eyes that had only ever looked on him with pride. And to know through his actions, no matter how righteous they may be, he had caused this.

It had gutted him just as much as it had the first time.

That first time, Yondu had told Stakar himself.

It had been shortly after that last pickup, before Yondu had realized that it would be the last.  
There'd been a meet up of the clans, a get together for some sort of thing or another- he couldn't remember- But there'd been drinking and revelry and everyone had been having a good time.

Yondu had been keeping his head down. He'd still been in denial at the time, clinging to its tattered remnants as doubt and suspicion clawed at him. That instinctive guilt had him doing his best to avoid attracting Stakar's attention and drinking heavily as a consequence.

He'd been half in his cups when Stakar had finally tracked him down. Stakar had sought him out from the crowd, and joked that Yondu must be hiding from him to be so hard to find. And while Yondu had laughed, it had hit a bit closer to the mark than he'd liked. And as they talked, their attention had been drawn to the scrappy childish form of Peter being harassed by some of Yondu's crew.

Drunk as he was, Yondu snapped at his crew before the consequences of the words he chose registered. He'd called the boy cargo, and told his men to keep their hands off the merchandise. And only when Stakar demanded he explain did Yondu realize what he'd done.

Yondu stumbled over his explanation, trying to mince words and spin it so it didn't sound so bad. And as he was pressed, more words spilled out- each slip and unintentional admission more damning than the last. So he'd backpedaled. Argued. Denied guilt and pleaded innocence.

And Stakar had seen right through him.

Yondu could admit now that Stakar had been right. He had no more delusions that he'd acted out of anything more than greed and fear. But at the time, and for a long long time after, he hadn't been able to see it. Hadn't wanted to see it.  
But it had served enough of a wake-up call for him to admit to himself that he knew Ego was bad news. That he should never have started handing over those kids to begin with. And that he wouldn't ever be handing over Peter... no matter how hard his crew pressed for it as the need for units only increased after being exiled.

And exile was the best possible outcome after the scene they'd caused.  
The things he'd admitted to doing, to knowing, that more than just code breaking had the ravager clans baying for his blood. It would have made more sense to have just killed him there, and many argued for it... Never let a slaver live to continue their dirty work.  
And honestly, at the time, Yondu would have preferred it. But Stakar had argued for exile. In a way that Yondu recognized now as, for all he threatened it over the years, he would have never of been able to carry through on any attempt at ending Peter's life. And for all the pain that his betrayal had caused him, Stakar had never and would never raise his hand against Yondu.  
And so he was exiled, cast out of the only home he'd ever known, shunned by the only family that had ever cared. To live with the shame his actions had wrought.

That shame had twisted in him like a knife.

For years he fought with it. Humiliation and self loathing raged against his denial and anger. At times he would believe himself, that if only he'd had a second chance to explain they would understand and he'd be accepted back to the ravager's table. Other times, he'd be so filled with that angry shame he'd lash out, that if they were to believe the worst of him, he may as well be the worst. He did many things during that time that he was not proud of now.  
But the one thing that he made sure to do was to never blame Peter.  
It wasn't ever Peter's fault for any of this. The kid had never really had a choice in any of it, from being born to a monster like Ego, to being orphaned by his mom, to being fuckin kidnapped by an asshole like him. And while somethings couldn't be changed, if Yondu was going to keep do his best to right one wrong and do just this one thing right...  
And so he'd tried his best to do right by that boy. So he'd kept him. Kept him safe. As safe as anybody could be with a ravager crew made up of the dregs of humanity like those he'd scrounged up willing to stay on with a disgraced clan in exile. Yondu had kept him, cared for him, and ended up loving that kid so damn much he'd died for him.

Yondu sighed deeply and stepped away from the glass to run his hands down his face, pulling at his neck with his fingers laced behind his head.

He'd hoped to have had Peter again before being exiled this time.

That kid. It was kinda ridiculous how much that kid came to mean to him. Still meant to him.

He'd nearly convinced himself several times to just drop everything and just blast his way to Terra. But the memory of that awful jump to Ego's planet, that physical gut wrenching nausea inducing sensation of his body trying to turn itself inside out, kept him sensible and prevented him from just punching in the coordinates and having done.  
And if they were going to have to do multiple jumps, Yondu knew he'd have to do something to keep his crew occupied. And if they were stopping anyways he'd might as well be productive about it and grab what kids he could along the way. And well, this was his second chance. So he'd done his best not to fuck it up.

Turns out his best wasn't good enough. As per fucking usual.

 _Fuck it._ Yondu thought as he dropped his hands to star at himself in the window once more, his reflection superimposed over stars and the shifting shadows of the ravager fleet. Setting his jaw in that same stubborn expression that had him marching from the ravager's judgement.

So he fucked up, big deal. Exile was nothing new. Losing Stakar's pride and trust for the second time hurts like hell, but fuck it. He'd lived through it once before so he could live with it again. He was tougher than that, and it wasn't ever gonna get him to change his mind. Hell, he'd fucked up bad and worse last time around and Peter'd turned out pretty damn okay in his book. And really, what else mattered other than that.

Yondu gives his jacket a solid tug, briefly running his thumb over the ravager badge winking lowly at him through the dim reflection. Huffs as a craggy half smile makes its way across his face.

The ravager clans might never accept him again, but that was fine too. Yondu had more family out amongst the stars in that one little terran boy than he'd ever had with them. And while he may not have _his_ boy back _yet,_ he still had seven other kids on his boat right now that need him. Need him to watch their back and keep them safe.

And ravager or not, he is gonna stand by those kids. He may not be the best choice. He may fuck it up more than he ever gets it right. But this is his second chance, damn it all, so Yondu is going to do his damnedest to _try_.

And at the very least, he'd like himself better this time.

And with that Yondu turned away from the window with a whirl of his coattails. Striding off with renewed purpose back the way he'd came. Ready and determined to hunt down that brood of kids that called his boy blood.

He actually didn't end up going very far at all.

About halfway back, Yondu turned a corner and nearly ran into a pair of legs dangling from the ceiling. Lurching back, Yondu's hand instinctively went to his arrow's pocket, before he remembered that Stakar still had his yaka arrow.

Lips still puckered, Yondu stepped back narrowly avoiding being kicked in the head as with a growl of frustration, the legs thrashed before dropping to hang there in the unmistakable posture of someone who has been solidly stuck for a good long while. The boy hung there muttering creative curses as Yondu got a good view of boney ankles peeking out from under the boy's trouser hem.

And Yondu grinned and whistled anyway.

Kraglin yelped, banging his head on the metal vent as he jumped- or rather jerked as with how stuck he was there wasn't a lot of room for him to move underneath the vent grate.

"Cap'n?" Kraglin asked, his voice warped and echoing as the boy went still once more.

"Kraglin," Yondu said, his voice as casual as you please,, "You hang around like this often?"  
"Oh, Sir! Uh no sir, I uh," Flustered Kraglin babbled, thrashing his legs again with renewed effort to free himself. And Yondu watched, not even bothering to hide his amused grin since the boy wouldn't be able to see it. No luck, and Kraglin's legs dropped in resignation, "I'm stuck."

"I can see that," Yondu said and relented, reaching up to lift the grate up off of Kraglin's back, unhooking it from where it had snagged the boy's jacket. "Not that they don't need it, but ain't you been takin' off of scrub duty?"

Freed Kraglin slipped back out of the vent, landing on his feet on the floor, black smudge and grime covering the boy's embarrassed flush, "I no- Yes I was but you told me to keep an eye on the twins and- I swear I only stepped away for a second and Willit was with them and-"

"Uh huh," Yondu said, tonguing his teeth as he gathered what had happened as Kraglin continued to ramble, eyes following the line of vents the boy had been wedged in. Stepping away, with Kraglin tagging along behind, Yondu followed the vent back towards the large cargohold. The echoing sound of voices speaking in earnest growing stronger with each step he took.

Another corner turn found him standing underneath a grate along the wall, and listening closely Yondu could hear the sound of young voices whispering to each other, the large metal vent creaking faintly with the shifting weight.

Reaching up, Yondu undid the latch holding the vent closed.

With a startled yell the twins tumbled out of the vent, rolling down the grate as it swung open underneath them. Willit remained in the vent above, hanging half in and half out much like Kraglin had been just moments earlier, only upside down, his arms flailing to hold himself up on the lip of the vent's opening and not land on the floor in a heap like the twins had. Groaning, the two tried to pull themselves up and out of the tangle of limbs they'd unceremoniously become.

"There you are!" Yondu said, seizing the twins by the ears making them yelp once more. "Ain't you two caused enough trouble for one day as it is? I've half a mind to tan your hide black-n-blue if it weren't so already. Kraglin!"

"Sir?" Kraglin yelped over the twins squawking, his eyes wide and nervous looking.

"Where are the other kids you're supposed to be watching?"

"Oh, um ah," Kraglin stuttered, "The-the med bay?"  
"Great," Yondu said, ignoring the twins grasping at the hand holding their ears, "Go help Willit get himself out of the vent an' meet us there."

"Yes sir," Kraglin nodded and moved, and Yondu turned his attention back on the twin trouble makers.

"Alright brats," Yondu said, hauling the pair to their feet, "March!"

The made a quick if odd looking procession to the infirmary, with the captain leading the way, steering the four armed twins in front of him with a firm grasp on their pointed ears, followed by the shapeshifting boy and Kraglin bringing up the rear.

"Tailor!" Yondu hollered, kicking the door open with his foot as his hands were occupied.

"Captain," Gus rumbled, the large blue pheragot moving quickly towards the door, "What you need."

"I believe these two troublemakers," Yondu said indicating the twins with a squinting scowl, "Are long overdue for a check up. I want you to give them the full immunization set, and make sure to give them a translation implant for good measure."  
"What!? Why!?" Squawked the twins, flailing indignantly.

"We can speak galactic just fine," The girl said, with her brother chipping in and nodding only to wince at it pulled at his ear, "We don't need a translation implant!"

"Is that so? Cause I beg to differ," Yondu scowled at them, giving their ears an extra pinch that made them yelp, "Could have sworn I had told the pair of you to behave an' stay put till I got back to ya. But that didn't happen now did it? "

The twins shot each other a glance, momentarily cowed at the captain's fearsome expression, and shook their heads tentatively.

"No it did not," Yondu agreed, "Now I'm willin' to drop it on account of the words gettin' lost in translation. Cause good lil ravager wanna-be's _listen_ when their captain gives them orders. So you two are gettin translation implants cause _next time_ their ain't gonna be any misunderstandings. Understand me?"

The boy nodded wincing while the girl muttered her agreement under her breath.

"I'm sorry I didn't quite hear that," Yondu growled with a pointed look.

"Yes sir," They chorused sullenly.

"Good!" Yondu said, releasing their ears to pat them solidly on the head, "Tailor, their all yours. See that it gets done."

"With pleasure captain," Gus rumbled, rubbing his hands together as he grinned down at the two twins nervously looking up at the giant of a man nervously, "But first. We wash."

With the twins left to the pheragot's tender mercies, Yondu turned his attention to the rest of the kids sequestered in the medbay.

Stepping farther in, Yondu nodded to Kraglin and Willit where they stood quietly off to the side, loitering near the door, and moved across the room to where T'rll was stretched out on a med-table.

"He's going to be okay," Anushka said as she looked up at the captain from where she sat next to the deonist boy. Nettle playing nearby on the floor underneath the other girls feet where they dangled off the bed. "Gus said that he's got a con- a concussion, cause he'd got hit so hard. But he fixed it and T'rll should be okay and should just sleep it off."

"That's good to hear," Yondu said turning his attention from the boy to Anushka, looking her over.

She frowned, a cute pout on a serious face, "He didn't fix the black eyes though. Said little things make good lessons or something like that."

"That they do," Yondu said gave her a pointed look, "And how are you. Don't think I didn't see you pull that reckless stunt in the mess."

"I'm okay," Anushka said ducking her head, but Yondu could see a small tentatively proud smile start to spread across her face as she looked back up at him, "I was scared, but I did it anyways. And-" She ducked her head again, hiding her smile behind her tail as she beamed up at him, "And I'm not scared anymore. I'm okay."

"Atta girl," Yondu huffed, a short stifled laugh as a smile tugged his own face and he reached over to ruffle her hair before shaking her gently, "Don't do it again. Got it?"

She nodded seriously, "I only did it cause T'rll needed help. He-" Anushka cut herself off abruptly, her little nose twitching before jumping off the med bed, "Willit! Willit your hurt!"

"What?" Yondu said turning around, about as started as the boy in question looked as Anushka ran over to the xartan boy's side."Willit, you hurt yourself in the vents?"

Anushka pried open the boy's tense fists. Revealing the bloody crescents the boy had pressed into his hands with his own blunt fingernails, before she scurried away to fetch bandages.

And it was then Yondu noticed that the boy hadn't shifted once since he'd been pulled out of the vent. Wearing his own orange complexion, Willit looked up from his bloody palms, peeking out from under his disheveled black hair with distressed teary eyes.

"Willit?" Yondu knelt before the boy, placing a hand on the boys shoulder.

"I-The twins," Willit started at the gentle prompt, his voice thick as his hands shook, "They wanted to- they wanted to know what was going on so- so they got into the vents where they could hear. And I- I went in after them- I tried to. But then..."

"Willit, son," Yondu said carefully, feeling the boy flinch, "How much did you hear?"

"All of it." He whispered, the hoarse admission a rough rasp, "We heard everything. And the twins, they- they think maybe- maybe it's a coincidence. But I know- I _know_ it's not."

The boy's dark eyes stared at him gravely serious, "You didn't pick me up on accident, did you?"

"No, I didn't" Yondu said simply, shaking his head as Anushka came back, her hands full of bandages and ointment. She hesitated, looking at the tense tableau anxiously, and Yondu reached over to pluck the bandage out of her hands to start wrapping the boy's hands himself.

Willit just nodded, "I'm on that man's list. And so you came for me. Just like mom said _he_ would."

Yondu kept tending to Willit's hands as the boy's eyes went distant, letting the boy talk and get it all out,"They said she was sick. That she was crazy. And when they said that they would take me away from her if she didn't get better, she got scared. She said we had to stay together so that he'd be able to find us. And so we ran away and hid in the desert where they met.  
"But she _was_ sick. And she didn't get any better. And every day she said he'd come to take us away, but he never came. And she died and I was all alone and he _never_ came.

"That man. My _father_ ," Willit shook his head, a bitter angry denial as his hands curled back into painful fists over the new bandage. And Yondu saw that it wasn't tears of sorrow that were threatening to fall from Willit's eyes but tears of an angry grieving rage, "He killed my mom. And I had to bury her all on my own."

"Willit," Anushka cried bursting into sympathetic tears as she wrapped him up in a hug that finally caused the boy's strength to break- Clinging to her as he buried his face her shoulder. "It's gonna be okay now. You'll see. Cause you're gonna be our brother and you are gonna be okay. Yondu is gonna keep us safe. And you're never ever _ever_ gonna be alone like that again."

And Yondu hovered for a moment, just briefly as old habits warred with new instincts, before he made up his mind and pulled both of the small children in. He scooped them both up into his arms, holding them tightly.

"Never again kid," He murmured, "I gotcha now. Never again."

Thankfully the kids crying jag only lasted a minute or two. With everything that had happened today, it was no wonder they were overwrought- and eventually the kids succumbed to an exhausted sleep. And for all that Yondu was letting these kids crawl into his squishy insides, he wasn't about to go walking down the halls to tuck them into their own beds for all to see. Still, he didn't bother waking them, and tucked them in a spare medbed next to T'rll. They could sleep here as well as anywhere else... Tailor wouldn't be kicking them out at least.

Yondu was feeling a bit tapped out himself, to be honest.

Yondu did a quick headcount. The three currently passed out on the bed weren't gonna be going anywhere anytime soon. The twins were well in hand under Tailor's watchful eye, although he'd need to have a long talk with them too sooner or later he was 'd known they were gonna be trouble the moment he'd laid eyes on them- trying to hotwire his shuttle after having spent the better half of the day trying to track them down. Was that still just today?

That was five, that left two more- A tug on his pants leg drew Yondu's attention down and he looked to see little Nettle reaching for him to pick her up. Ah, just one then.

"Kraglin? Where's H'ekk?" And Yondu turned to see Kraglin jerk awake from where he'd apparently been nodding off by the door.

"H'ekk? I uh-," Kraglin stuttered as he looked around. Eyes growing wide with an anxious sort of panic, before he closed them in a pained sort of way, "I- I don't know. I dont-"

And as Kraglin hung his head, Yondu sighed and called himself three kids of an idiot.

It had been so easy to forget, but Kraglin- Kraglin wasn't the first mate he remembered. The potential was there, and it was so easy to forget but right now, he was just a kid. As much a kid as the ones he'd been picking up. And he'd been leaning on Kraglin like he'd been that ravager grown- making him keep track of them all so Yondu could keep captaining as best he could.

Well that had turned out great, hadn't it.

Now half his crew was dead, the other half probably would ditch him as soon as the ravager clan's exiled him for breaking the code. So maybe, maybe it was time that Yondu quit trying to be so much a ravager captain and started- started being more like the father he was trying to be.

"Kraglin."  
And the boy looked up- cause that's what he was, no matter that Yondu could still see echoes of the man he'd become in his eyes- and Kraglin's expression had that same quiet self directed disappointment as he had when he'd caused that mutiny. Disappointment in himself, disappointment that he'd let down his captain. And that was Kraglin alright. Steadfast and loyal, from the first to the last.

"You done good today," Yondu said, reaching out to put his hand on the boy's shoulder- much like he had held Willit not an hour before, "I put a lot on you, I know- moren' anyone else. But you step up every time, and you ain't let me down yet. And today I asked more of you than ever- more'n I should have. And you still stepped did good Kraglin."

Kraglin quavered, "But I- I couldn't- the twins in the mess and H'ekk-"  
"But nothing," Yondu said, his voice firm as he give Kraglin a solid shake, "You did your best, and did what you could. That's all I'll ever ask and that's what you did. I'm proud of you, son."

And Yondu knew he'd made the right call as Kraglin's eyes got suspiciously shiny and he ducked his head with a sniffle.

"I ain't no orphan like them," Kraglin said, scuffing his feet, "M'folks ain't dead."

"No," Yondu agreed, "But they ain't takin care of you either. And just cause you ain't on no special list, don't mean I'm gonna care about you less. Way I see it, you're a part of my crew and that makes you my boy. Understood?"

"Yes Cap'n," Kraglin nodded, and wiped surreptitiously at his eyes.

"Good," Yondu nodded, giving his future first mate's shoulder a squeeze, "Now you, go on an' get yourself to bed. Consider yourself off duty for the next whole cycle."

"What?" Kraglin's head came up abruptly, "No, I can still work- I still gotta find H'ekk."

"I gotta make that an order son?" Yondu said pointedly, "I'm the captain I _can_ order bedrest."

"No sir," Kraglin said, ducking his head and looking away, a bit embarrassed but unable to resist the small smile at the captain calling him son again.

"I'll take care of H'ekk so don't you worry about that," Yondu said, looking down as his pants were tugged on once more, this time seeing the little girl point towards down the hall with her other hand, "Nettle here seems to have some idea of where to look. So you go on and git.

"Yes sir," Kraglin said, a smile sneaking onto his face as he saluted his captain and walking away.

"An' I don' wanna see you doin' any work until after dinner tomorrow. Got it?" Yondu hollered after him as he watched him go, before another tug on his pants had him relenting.

"Alright prickly pear," Yondu said leaning down to pick the cactus girl up, "Lead the way. Let's see what the hell child's gotten himself into now."

The clans will be arguing long into the night. And most likely will be arguing for a few nights more. They'll bicker and fight, until Stakar forces a decision- And whether that decision ends in exile or not has yet to be decided. But at this very moment, Yondu finds it very hard to care.

Given the choice between ravager captain or father... well, he knows which one he'd choose.

And that's never going to change.


	11. Eagles - Hotel California

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway to Hell**

* * *

Chapter 11: Eagles - Hotel California

 _Out in the far reaches of the galaxy, Ego continues his life's work._

* * *

After all this time, you'd think he'd be used to it by now.

But no matter how many eons passed, he could still feel that bitter sting. Another disappointment.

Gently, Ego pet soft downy hair before passing his palm over the wide, damp, unseeing eyes to brush them closed. Eyes no longer filled with that small spark of life, the light in them long gone. But then, the _light_ had never been there to begin with had it.

Oh well.

Dispassionately, Ego watched as the ground gave way, the tendrils of light under his command crumbling the floor beneath the tiny corpse before lifting it up and tugging it down and out of sight. He'll tuck the little creature's bones deep within his planetary form, where he will hold it close for the rest of eternity. Another memento and grim reminder. Marking the passing of endless time, just another step in his journey towards achieving his grand purpose.

A choked sob bursts noisily behind him, and Ego's attention is quickly drawn from the already refilling hole.

"Oh, Mantis," Ego leaned down to pet the girl's dark hair, much like he'd caressed the dead child moments before. Kneeling on the floor, Mantis' young face was the picture of despair. Great tears rolling down her chubby, childish cheeks as she burbled and hiccuped shamelessly in her grief.

"Come now," He said, picking the little girl up. The child instinctively wrapping herself around him, as he pat her back soothingly, "No more of that."

He did try to avoid having his little pet see this part, but somethings just couldn't be helped.

Mantis' empathic powers were simply too useful in getting the stubborn to see things his way, and this last potential child of his had been particularly stubborn. Ego had needed her to stay close. For some reason the little thing would panic at the sight of him and wouldn't let him get close to it, let alone speak or get near enough to see if it had possessed the light. Mantis had been needed to keep it calm and with the bond they developed over the past few days, it had been inevitable that it's passing would distress her.

He'd warned her not to befriend it. Countless times, counseling her to keep her distance, but no matter how hard she tried in this one manner she seemed incapable of obedience.

Mantis always got so attached to his children and this time was no exception.

And when it came to controlling the light this time was no exception as well.  
Frankly, she really should know better by now.

"Here child, no more," Ego said as he took the child's hand and placed it upon his head.

"There you go," Ego crooned to her as in his peripheral he could see her little antenna light up as he intended; her sobs instantly subsiding, "You see? Nothing to cry about. Just another disappointment, that's all. There will be others. No more tears. They're not worth it."

"Why-why couldn't," Mantis whimpered in his ear.

"Why couldn't they stay?" Ego said, and she nodded against his shoulder, "Oh Mantis, to what end? Without the light, there is no _reason_ for them to stay. They'd have no purpose. No reason for being here."

"And I have purpose?"

"Yes. You have purpose." Ego said and disentangled the little girls arms from around his neck before setting her on the floor, "You help me, and therefor you have purpose. Are we better now?"

No longer touching him, Mantis' antenna dimmed as Ego put her down. And although her black eyes still looked weepy she nodded anyways, "I have purpose."

"Good girl," Ego said and patted her head once more, before turning her to the door and shooing her away, "Run along now, go play. But be back before dark. I'll need you-"

"To help you sleep," Mantis said, nodding determinedly even as she slowly began to make her way out of Ego's temple, "I'll remember Ego. I won't forget."

With his little charge taken care of and out of sight, Ego attempted to put her out of his mind as he turned his attention back to the restructuring of his Temple. The grand edifice was already warping and changing under his will, and at his direction all traces of his most recent failure was removed from the glittering walls.

Despite the occasional unpleasantness from the child's emotional outbursts, Ego was glad he'd convinced himself to risk keeping the little bug although he was less than proud of the circumstances that led to it.

Years ago, his journey across the stars had led him to the planet of Mantodea, where he decided to don their racial appearance and seduce a lovely mantis woman by the name of Optera. And like her people, Optera had those same emphatic abilities and powers. And one fateful day she turned those powers on him, giving him the first ever restful sleep of his existence.

It terrified him at first. That she hold such power over him. To make him sleep... It was wonderful. It was like nothing he'd ever experienced. To finally feel what true peace could be like. It was much like how he imagined what the completion of the expansion would be like.

He'd left her immediately, abandoning her in the night. But sleep was like a drug, and once tasted he longed for it ever after. But whenever he attempted to achieve that kind of peace again, to sleep under his own power, he came to no success.

Without Optera he was incapable of sleeping.

Such attachment was dangerous, but he could no longer deny that he was powerless against is sweet siren song. Needed that blissful touch of oblivion as he needed nothing else. So against his better judgement, he broke his rules for her. Ego returned to Mantodea, returned to _Optera,_ intent on taking her and bringing her to his true self. For the first time, he was willing to open himself to another being, lesser though she may be, where he would keep her for the rest of eternity at his side. His precious treasure, his queen of peace.

But when he returned he found things were no longer the way he had left them.

His seedling, which he had planted near where Optera had lived had died. He had hoped it would survive, but it had barely been rooted before he'd left so abruptly- snapping its tenuous bond with him long before it could become self sustaining and caused it to wither and die. A seedling could be replanted however, but without it his seedling his thrall lost its hold over his lover. And without the pull of his thrall, Optera's claims of utter devotion to him turned out to be nothing but hollow lies. She abandoned him. Betrayed him. _Forgot_ about _him_. She _moved on._

And in discovering this, well... Ego was ashamed to admit it but he _lost his temper._

While he may not have the power necessary to carry out the fullness of his plan for expansion, the sheer force of his rage was more than sufficient for him to subsume the planet of Mantodea into himself. The energy spent was more than enough to exhaust him, and he wouldn't be able to maintain his control over the planet for long, but Mantodea as it was known was gone forever- it's people utterly destroyed.

Save for one.

Amongst the rubble, Ego held onto the child his lover had born in her betrayal. He'd hoped that the little larval thing would prove to be his in truth, but that was not the case. Mantis, as he called her after her lost people, held no trace of the light that was him. But she was also her mother's daughter, and when she grew out of her larval state her powers grew as well.

He'd come to appreciate the versatility of the little mantis' power, the child proved her usefulness time and time again. It made everything so much easier with her to smooth the way and control his more recalcitrant children in a more subtle and less invasive manner than his own methods. And he was fortunate that her own emotional outbursts could be just as easily managed. It surely did make things easier on him, and allowed him to forgive the occasional transgression.

But most of all, Ego prized her powers for one facet above all others.

At long last that brief restful peace was returned to him. Ego was able to sleep once more.

But that was for later, and right now there was still work to be done.

Looking around at his reformed temple, Ego admired his work. The walls iridescent with precious metals and jewels, an elaborate mural once more of his visage and his alone. Satisfied, Ego finally released his hold on his current form and allowed his current avatar to dissolve. Fading into nothingness as it crumbled into millions of sparkling motes of light.

And with that Ego returned to himself. His true self. The very center of everything, the massive brain that was him. Thrumming with power and light, Ego allowed himself a brief moment to revel in the sensation of being whole and singular.

And when the moment passed, with a mere flex of his thoughts, Ego scattered himself to the far reaches of the galaxy. Reaching out through the vastness of space to touch with the distant parts of him that he had left behind.  
Many of his scattered seedlings have long since gone dormant. They lived still, and he could still perceive them, shining in his awareness like a dim smattering of stars dotting the endless vacuum. Some day they will be glowing again, like vibrant fiery stars swollen and and complete with light- rich with the fullness of him as he becomes everything he is destined to become. For now Ego contents himself with the knowledge that they glow still, waiting patiently for the day he has the power to reach them all once more.

A faint twinging snap draws his attention, and Ego's awareness turns to absolute focus.

A seedling once glowing has gone dormant. Concentrating deeply, Ego pulls the last threads of light connecting the now dimming seedling back to him. And as the light returns his mind is washed with the last testaments of information. The seedling is vibrant and healthy still, and will be able to stay in its dormant state for a millennia or more. It's active connection to the host mind Ego had wrapped it's light around has finally ended and can no longer leach from it that living essence.

Another of his lovers has died then.

The seedlings information sifts into his mind with the fading light and Ego remembers.  
Krylor, his lover Tanja Wit. His red skinned sweetheart. His sunset plum. Ever only devoted to him.

The wasting sickness he'd fed into her blood had finally taken her from the world then. His connection to the seedling may be broken now, but the thrall he'd left with it had stayed strong- ensuring that Tanja was his and only his for the rest of eternity. She'd remarried a year ago, but the man was no threat to her affections. Tanja would _never_ do anything that would cause him anger, his seedlings thrall had seen to that. She'd remarried for the security, for her ailing health. She'd done it so there would be someone to take care of her child until Ego required her...

Her child, _Mira._ Such a young little thing, nearly ten. So alone now. Left to her bitter step-father's care. Perhaps this one would hold the light.

Perhaps this one would truly be _his_...

Soon. He'd already sent envoys to collect this child, as he'd been anticipating Tanja's passing for a long while. She would be delivered to him with the others and he would know soon enough.

In the meantime, Ego pulled away from the dimming seedling and spread out his attention over the other half of himself. His Avatars.

It was not easy to split one's consciousness into as many parts as he had. But over the course of a millennia, Ego had learned his limits and perfected the technique. Now he had a dozen or so at any given time, scouring the cosmos in search of a more perfect match to his genetic composition.

They were a much more sophisticated construct than his seedlings, requiring far more attention and maintenance to sustain them. The connection he had with them was much greater, while also allowing the avatars a measure of independence and autonomy. Essentially, his avatar was _him._ Or rather, a him that was carefully and painstakingly crafted to suit the temperament and personal preferences of his chosen lovers.

Obviously such an undertaking lent for some trial and error. The need for flexibility and active adaptation was vital in the pursuit to proper wooing. But seduction was just another form of manipulation in the end, and Ego had had a very _very_ long time to practise this particular art.

While he found his thrall to be a required necessity in his absence, Ego very _rarely_ found the need to visit a lover more than once to win them over to his side. And rarer still for him to have to rely on the thrall of his light to open his chosen lover's eyes to his greatness.

There were always a few that tried to resist him. But they always came to see things his way in the end. It was only a matter of finding the _exact_ pattern that his lover would find most pleasing. The aesthetics of his physical form, the behavior he presented, using just the right words...

He could manipulate any and every part of himself to be exactly what they desired. And in return, all he asked was their undying devotion. For if they were going to love a god, should they not love him forever? To love him and only him for the rest of their small tiny speck of existence.

And what better proof of love could they provide but to give him the chance to achieve his purpose?

Some day he would find the one. The one he was truly compatible with. Who would possess that sublime sequence of genetic code that would allow him to truly propagate. Destined to bare him a child that would be _his entirely._ Able to hold light and wield power with a thought, and _together_ they would face _eternity_ and _command_ that _everything be_ _HIS-_

Ego was abruptly jolted back to himself. Something had disturbed his atmosphere.

With a thought Ego willed himself back into existence upon the surface of his planet. Light and radiance pouring off of him as he searched for the anomaly. He'd only just laid his latest mistake to rest, and Ego had not been expecting another visitor so soon. He kept any and all visits to his planet under his careful and absolute control. This was where _he_ truly _was_ after all, and Ego would not risk anything damaging the source of him or the source of the light within him without taking any and every precaution.

There should be nothing for light years around. That was the way Ego liked it, and he was determined to keep it that way.

Tall grass rasping at his knees, Ego lifted a hand as he squinted into the hazy distance.

A ship... it was a ship of some sort, too large to be a shuttle, but definitely a space faring craft appeared over the horizon between the wafting heatwaves of the late afternoon sunlight. Ego frowned as he tried to identify it's make. It could be another delivery, although if it was he would be having _words_ with whomever was in charge of this particular vessel. Ego did not _appreciate_ surprises, and he would make that very clear that this would not happen again- with Mantis' help if necessary.

No- no, Ego did not recognize this ship. Which meant that it was not one of his usual suppliers- which meant that this ship had no business being here. Lifting his hand, Ego gathered light into his fist- before a sudden thought gave him pause.

It could still be a delivery. His ravager captain had never made the trip to Ego before, perhaps this ship was him.

Ego had worried about the wisdom of having such a large group of his children delivered at one time. Personally he preferred the one on one interaction, it allowed him greater control over the situation- and he could adapt his person to best sooth the expectations of one child instead of many. But when his ravager captain had offered, Ego had found it hard to resist- the idea of having so many of his progeny in his grasp, the greater the chance that one or more might succeed where others failed. Despite being ancient beyond measure, Ego was impatient at heart, and had succumbed to the temptation.

As far as risks, Ego found it to be a low one. If he discovered that it wasn't worth his while he could simply kill the man and his entire crew and go back to how it was before.

But if it was Udonta, Ego couldn't risk the ship's destruction until after he retrieved his children.

The man had said his ship would drop them off when they'd gathered enough for a delivery. Vague as that may be, Ego had understood that it would take the man a long time to fulfill their contract. He'd been keeping close tabs on his ravager captain just for that very reason. But his calls had been met with reassurance, the little cotati in his arms evidence that the man had been keeping his side of the bargain after all. With proof of Udonta's continued cooperation, Ego had relaxed and contented himself to exercise his patience as he awaited the greater reward.

But perhaps Ego had gotten complacent because of this. It _had_ been awhile since he'd last contacted the pirate. It was impossible that the man had completed his list, but perhaps things had changed.

Watching the ship continue to cruise his sky, Ego debated.

It had the haphazard look of a ravager vessel, but then most ships employed in piracy all started to look the same after a while. And while his planet was remote, it was not completely unheard of for Ego to receive the occasional unlucky interloper completely oblivious to their trespass. There had been a few over the years, explorers, adventurers, colonists and miners- all looking for that new prospect of land to claim. Unfortunately for them, Ego had no intention of sharing what was his.

 _No, no this wasn't a delivery._ Ego finally determined as he watch the vessel draw ever closer. The ship moved swiftly, showing no signs or inclination that it was looking for a landing spot. No, this slow pass had all the hallmarks of a deep scanning system. _This was a scout._

Whatever it was scouting for, whatever it's goal, was irrelevant at this point. It would be destroyed.

Dissolving his avatar once more, Ego infused himself with the essence of the planet surrounding him. Permeating the earth with his will, his boiling rage roared on a tectonic level and Ego rose to attack the interloper, intent on its imminent and absolute destruction.

 _How dare they come here. How dare they disturb him in his solitude. How dare they come when he is grieving!_

The scouting ship recoiled, narrowly dodging the sudden advent of a mountain throwing itself in it's flight path. The late afternoon day turned and shifted into a dangerous twilight as dust and earth suddenly choked the atmosphere. Cavernous rents in the earth, that had not been there seconds ago, poured thick black clouds of volcanic ash into the air. The now black sky boiling as savage bolts of electric energy split the darkness- the very planet turned against them.

Try as it might, the tiny scouting ship was no match for the sheer magnitude of the forces wielded against it. A testament to the pilot's skill, their fleeing flight lasted far longer than Ego had expected. But within three minutes, the ship was struck a fatal blow. Even wounded, the ship still flew, limping through the air like a one winged insect as it tried to escape him. But there was never a chance for that. Caught in Ego's grasp, they were but a plaything and within five minutes the nimble vessel was reduced to nothing more than a crumpled heap upon the ground.

Assuming another avatar form, Ego approached the pathetic smoldering wreckage. The tectonic rumbling echoes of Ego's abrupt wrath fading into nothing as he looked on his work with satisfaction. The ship was an utter ruin. Ruptured plasma burned unchecked as fire and smoke poured from it. The acrid scent of burning flesh mixing with the dust and falling ash as the clouds settled around him. And Ego smiled, and walked away.

Ropes of light surged from the ground to grasp the wreckage, pulling and wrenching the durasteel walls apart. The ship would be torn apart, every piece reduced to into base material and incorporated, absorbed into the elements of his planet. There would be no survivors, and even if there was some unfortunate soul still alive in that mess... well, they wouldn't stay that way long.

Putting the day behind him, Ego made his way back to the temple. Mantis would be waiting for him, ready to give him the sleep he craved.

And perhaps tomorrow he would check in on his ravager captain once more.


	12. Fleetwood Mac - Peacekeeper

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway to Hell**

* * *

Chapter 12: Fleetwood Mac - Peacekeeper

 _Stakar has bought Yondu some time... now comes the hard part._

* * *

Stakar stood with his arms crossed. Waiting.

As he had been for the days since he had returned to his own flagship nearly a week ago. Staring out into the space between the stars, Stakar was an immobile presence on the bridge, stoic and pensive as ever.

After Yondu had left, Stakar had been hard pressed to maintain order among the ravager clans. Many had been irate, baying for blood in true ravager fashion. And whether that blood came from Yondu or this so called Ego mattered little at the time... some of them not even bothering to make the distinction between the two.  
Others had been less angry, but no less worrisome to handle. Old school ravagers. Those clans still around from the time before Stakar rose to prominence, had always been a troublesome group. While most held Stakar in high regard, there was always a few that would resent how much power Stakar had amassed- going against whatever he suggested just out of sheer stubbornness and antagonism.  
The rest tended to be the more pragmatic type, but no less dangerous. They were the type that was always on the lookout for a leg up. Always looking something that they could turn to their own personal advantage... And as such, they tended not to care as much for the code that the ravager clans had adopted, but knew better than to flout it for fear the rest of the clans might turn on them.

When Stakar found he could take their bickering no more, he called the table to a close. With tempers running hot and emotions high, there would be no decisions made that night. At the moment, they only had rumor and hearsay. Just the word of one man, who's on place amongst them has already been called into question. They would find no justice bickering in the dark.  
Stakar commanded that they return to their ships, and have the table return in a week's time. During this intervening week, they would _all_ investigate Yondu's claims however they see fit. Stakar himself would take part in this, setting his own team to the task. In the meantime, with space to cool their heads and tempers, they would have time to consider all that had been said and the arguments made.

And when the week was up, the hundred clans would come together once more, to present their findings and cast their final judgement.

Make no mistake, Stakar would find the _truth_ and there would be _justice._

With various levels of acceptance, the ravager clans agreed. The few that had been spurred into anger leaving swifter than most, wisely knowing not to linger where their already frayed tempers might cause them to turn violent towards their brethren. The rest of the clans dispersed slowly, choosing to leave on their own terms as they mingled and talked to each other for hours, long after they'd been dismissed.

"Stakar."

Roused from his musings, Stakar looked over his shoulder as a familiar presence approached him to stand silently by his side.

"Aleta," He said, instead of just grunting in acknowledgement of her presence.

While his personal relationship with the woman had often been rocky, they'd always maintained a good working relationship. Aleta had always, and would always be his dearest friend but sometimes that was just simply not enough to maintain a marriage. They were too similar, the both of them. Prone to keeping their own counsel and holding grudges longer than typically reasonable or necessary. United they were a force to be reckoned with, but when they turned that focus and aggression towards each other- they burned hot and cold in equal measure.

It was a relentless, exhausting cycle...

It had been a hard truth to come to terms with, but they had both eventually agreed that what they had wasn't working, and hadn't been working for a long time. That while they may still love each other, it was long past time that they stopped trying to force themselves into an unhappy and unhealthy relationship in the hopes that it would get better.

So they parted ways, reluctantly, but both finally acknowledging that it was for the best. As his second she'd always proved to be unequivocally capable... and he would miss her not only as a friend, but as an irreplaceable member of his crew. But he had ever faith that she would go on to great successes, with or without him, and he was glad to see that she proved him right.

Now she was a peerless captain of an elite ravager clan, with a crew as relentless and as fearsome as any.

"Been some time," Stakar said looking over her now, taking in the colors that now adorned her jacket, "You look good."

Aleta spared him a glance, and only his great familiarity with her allowed him to spot the faint quick upturn of her lips, before she turned her attention back to the window before them. For a moment they watched the stars in a companionable silence.

"It's been nearly a week," Aleta said, finally breaking the silence. A mere statement of fact.

"I'm well aware," Stakar said, "We still have time."

Aleta merely hummed in response.

It was a testament to how well his team knew him, that the moment he'd dismissed the clans they rallied around him- already turning their focus to the tasks he would be setting before them. At a wave of his hand, Aleta's second had handed over the datapad- which he then promptly turned over to Mainframe. As an android, Mainframe's computational powers were second to none. With the sheer amount of data provided, she was the only one among them actually capable of processing and analyzing the information stored within and making sense of it. If there was proof to be found hiding in this datapad towards Yondu's claims, she would find it.

Case in point, she'd barely begun her analysis before Mainframe had quickly discovered a prime facet of information that may prove crucial towards their investigation. With this, they could seek out the root of this conflict at its very source.

The coordinates to this so called Ego's planet.

"Have you been in contact with Charlie-27?" Aleta asked.

"No," Stakar grunted, "Not yet."

Aleta frowned, "That is surprising, he should have checked in by now."

Stakar said nothing. While it was unusual, Stakar had every confidence in Charlie-27. The distance he would have to travel was a considerable amount, and long distance jumps tended to scramble coms to the point that the were unreceivable at times. It was entirely possible that Charlie would chose to maintain his radio silence until he'd jumped back into proper range.

"Charlie knows what he's doing," Stakar said after a moment, "Besides, he has backup should anything go wrong."

"Oh?" Aleta said raising a brow.

"Yes," Stakar said with a nod, "Charlie may be our best pilot, his ship isn't exactly the stealthiest. He went to one of the other clans with access to better tech. Recruited that archernonian-"

"Archernonian?" Aleta interrupted, a touch alarmed, "He took Brahl with him?"

"What? No, not that jackass," Stakar said, waving a hand, "One of Aristarco's clan. Privahl."

She nodded, a soft exhale of relief escaping her.

Aristarco's clan was one of the more 'high class' ravager clans. They tended less towards petty theft and bounty hunting, and leaned more towards targeting the bigger more complicated scores. High stake heists. Targeting the galaxies most wealthy elites and cutting through security forces that they could afford.  
Aristarco himself was a gramosian, and a master at forgeries, be that purely documentation or the finest of art pieces. His crew was no less talented. As consequence the typical scores that they could haul in meant that his entire outfit was equipped with the very best.

Stakar did not know much about Privahl, but for all Aristarco and his crew were talented at crafting believable lies, their integrity was head and shoulders above the usual ravager fare. Charlie would be in good hands.

Brahl on the other hand, Stakar wouldn't trust him to spit on a man on fire.

At least not without some sort of angle or gain in his favor. An extortionist and a blackmailer, the purple devil dug his claws into whatever he owned and was constantly grasping for more. One those old school ravagers. Brahl was a hard and unpleasant man to deal with, with a ruthless stranglehold on his small clan of ravagers. The borders of his territory were constantly in a state of flux as the man strove to expand his reach- which frequently led to him butting heads with the other clans.

Case in point, the table hadn't been broken up for an hour before Brahl and his second started making trouble. Stakar hadn't been privy to the conversation himself, but whatever it was Aleta's first mate hadn't taken kindly to whatever had been said. Before anyone could so much as raise there voice, the dakkamire woman ended the fight faster than she started it. With one punch she sent Brahl's first mate flying headfirst out the cargo bay to smack into the far hallway wall, where he slid into an ungainly and undoubtedly unconscious slump on the floor. At the woman's expression, Brahl wisely decided to escort himself out, collecting his man with no further fuss.

"Brahl's first mate is lucky to be alive," Stakar turned towards Aleta, whose smug expression made it clear she had easily followed his train of thought, "That dakkamite firstmate of yours is quite the woman."

"I'm well aware," Aleta said, echoing his statement from before, and a mischievous light sparked in her eyes as that subtle smile appeared once more, "I wouldn't marry just anyone after all."

"You remarried?" Stakar said with a mild tone of surprise, dropping his chin as his eyebrows reached for his hairline, "Well I'll be damned."

Aleta just huffed a small laugh, her smile tugging more insistently at her lips before she turned, hiding her grin as she looked back over her shoulder at her woman. Stakar turned slightly to do the same, and took in the view of the tall dakkamite woman.  
Aleta's first mate, and wife apparently, was in deep conversation with Mainframe over by the navigation console as star charts flickered by at a rapid pace- far faster than Stakar himself would be able to keep track of. The woman's strength and physique was undoubtedly attractive, not to mention the scars that littered the woman's arms and face. Dakkamites were notoriously hard to damage, so that the woman could be harmed to such an extent to bear scars from it was a testament to not only the hardship of her life, but the relentless determination to survive it... Something both he and Aleta had in common, and apparently found very attractive in others as well.

"I may be Captain of our ship," Aleta said, a note of fondness in her voice, "But Suzahn Ender is a one woman legion. She absolutely decimated an entire kree blockade platoon, single handedly, just because she thought I was held captive on the other side. I was fine of course, but it was quite romantic."

"Well ain't that somethin'," Stakar murmured before turning his own smile back towards his ex, "So're you Aleta Ender now or what?"

"Aleta Ogord is who I am, and always will be," She said, turning back to face the stars, "We both know that ain't changing anytime soon. But since the colors of Ogord are taken, we decided to fly under her name."

"I see," Stakar said, and raised a hand to stroke his chin in exaggerated thought, "So you are Clan Ender now, hmm? I donno, kinda like it. Has a nice ring to it."

Aleta rolled her eyes and nudged him hard in the ribs with the elbow of her folded arms, "Idiot."

"No really," Stakar said, surreptitiously rubbing at his side before straightening up once more, "I'm happy for you, I really am. Should'a introduced us to her sooner. We'd of made a party out of it. Still should. Boy's and I'll give her a proper introduction to the family."

"I know you would. And you know that's exactly why I haven't," Aleta retorted and they they shared a quiet laugh, remembering good times. Not better times, but... just good. When the clan was closer, and not scattered halfway across the stars. That close camaraderie, a brotherhood of arms. As close to family most of them ever managed to have. But the laughter quickly died, as it called their attention back to the reason the clans had been called together in the first place.

The easy silence turned strained and somber,and finally Aleta turned towards Stakar again. She frowned, giving him a long hard look as she stared him down. Looking him over from head to toe. Taking in the dark lines of stress and worry. The weary bloodshot eyes. The appearance of scruff adorning the usually clean shaven jawline.

"I'd ask how you are, but I know you better than that," She said at last, a familiar look of resigned disapproval on her face, "Have you slept at all this week?"

"Enough," Stakar grunted, the rote response to an old song.

"And Yondu," Aleta said, noting the way Stakar reacted, drawing into himself as he folded his arms over his chest and dropped his chin low, "Have you at least spoken with him since..."

"I have," Stakar said abruptly.

"And?"

"And-" Stakar exhaled deeply, "... and I don't know..."

After everything had been all said and done, Stakar had stalked the hallways. Pacing. To clear his head. He certainly hadn't set out intending to find Yondu.

But find him he did.

Turning a corner, Stakar caught sight of the blue centaurian sitting on the floor next to the young aerie boy. And quickly Stakar pulled himself back against the wall and out of sight before he was spotted. Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed he could hear the low murmur of conversation come from around the corner, and could see the strange sight of a small green plant-like child playing on the before them... chasing some sort of shipboard pest.

An errant pounce landed the playful thing at his feet, and as the lil' one's red eyes slowly looked up at him, Stakar quickly raised a finger to his lips in a hushing motion. It- she, cocked her head to the side as she looked up at him- an odd humming sensation tickling the back of his head. Before the space roach buzzed by again, drawing her attention away from him and back to the chase.

Stifling a sigh of relief, Stakar settled in against the wall and turned his attention back to the conversation.

"-that's why the empire isn't coming?" said the boy, "because of my father?"

"Hell, I don't know kid," Yondu said, and although his voice was low and tired, it was as easy as Stakar had ever heard it, "It's as likely a reason as any. I've been around long enough to know that eugenic types like them shi'ar bast- like the Shi'ar Empire, well they don't tend to look too kindly on folks that muck up their gene pools."

"Oh," the kid said, quietly surprised, "I thought..."

"Thought what, kid?"

"I thought it was because they knew."

"Knew what?" Yondu asked with an audible frown.

"I thought that-that they knew I was defective." the boy's voice hitched, sniffling, "I am military trainee. I'm supposed to be a warrior. Bring glory to the empire. An' I couldn't... I ra- I'm supposed to be a warrior and I _ran._ The empire has no need for _defective cowards_."

"The hell you talkin bout boy?" Yondu said, a low growl of confusion in his voice, "You think you're a coward just 'cause you got scared?"

Stakar couldn't see but he could hear the boy's feathers rustle as he shook his head in a shrug.

"Ah, hell son," Yondu said, and Stakar blinked to hear the familiar echo of his own voice in that tone of resigned exasperation, "I know them folks at that academy filled your head with all sorts of nonsense, but runnin from a fight don't make you a coward. Makes you sensible, is what it does. Shi'ar warrior or no, there ain't enough trainin' in the world gonna make a _nine_ year old _boy_ fit to fight in a mess like that. Hell, I wish the damn twins had as much sense as you to get when the goin' is good- stead of charging in headfirst fixin' to get them fool heads shot in the back."

"Twins?"

"You'll meet em later, not the point," Yondu said waving his hand, "The point is you saw you got yerself in over your head and the moment you got the opportunity to git out you did. And that's a good thing. Shows you got a sense of self-preservation that... frankly seems like it's hard to come by in your generation.

"Now admittedly," Yondu continued, "A _good_ sense of self-preservation would keep ya from gettin into that kinda situation in the first place- but I'll take what I can get. And that's another thing- Since day one you been givin' me'n my crew one hell of a fight. Ain't a day gone by you ain't been a pain in the ass, raising' all manner of hell with those ambushes of yours. You been doin' your damnedest to get us thinkin' you are more trouble than you're worth, an' you been doing a damn fine job of it too. So lemme tell you somethin here an' now..."

"That there," Yondu said, his voice low and earnest, "That's not the actions of a coward or a defect of any sort. It's damn smart, and it takes real guts to pull off. An' even more to keep tryin' when it don't work the first time either. And if your empire can't see that, 'cause of who your daddy was or wasn't, or cause you ain't turnin out exactly like they planned, or for whatever sort of bullshit reason you can think of- well, that's their damn loss. Cause you are one hell of a kid."

There was a small beat of silence before Yondu started up once more, masking the sound of the kids quiet sniffles, "Course, I'd appreciate it if you would knock it off an' stop harrassin' my crew so much. Make my life a whole lot easier, but I understand why yer doin' it even if I don't get why you're so damn eager to get back to them shi'ar bastards. I mean, take it from somebody who's been in an' out of more jails than I can count, I've been in prisons cells run by the kree that looked more cozy than that damn thing you were cooped up in."

"The Shi'ar Empire-"

"I know, I know," Yondu cut him off, "The empire is the greatest, yada yada yada and all that rot. That's what they've told you to think, an' they've stuffed your noggin full of that sh- that stuff you're whole damn life. I get that. I'm sayin I don't get why _you_ wanna get back to them. Cause, if forget about all they've told you an' just think about it for a second- think about where you was livin' and how you was treated. What in the damn hell did the empire ever do for _you_ to want to get back to them so much?"

"I-" The kid started and stopped, "I don't..."

"I'm not tellin ya to change you mind today," Yondu said, "Propaganda or brainwashing, call it what you will, you ain't gonna buck it in a day. And I'm not saying your gonna end up cussin' and cursing them like the rest of us here, although you could- we're not gonna mind. I'm just saying think about some, yeah?"

"An' who knows," Yondu said after a moment, "you might find you like it better here."

Silence filled the lull, the only sound that of the occasional sniffle and creak of leathers. Stakar figured Yondu was giving the child a moment to pull himself together- and for the moment, they watched in silence as the little toddling plant-thing continue to spin and bounce after the critter it was stalking.

"But I do know one thing." Yondu said, breaking the silence, "You, H'ekk. You'd make a hell of a ravager."

The plant child pounced, and there was a victorious sort of humming buzz that ticked the back of their mind. Their eyes were drawn back to her as she triumphantly held up her squirming prize- only for her mouth to gape in a venus-flytrap like grin as she swallowed the bug whole.

"Did-" the kid started tentatively, "Did you know she ate bugs?"

"Kid," Yondu said, sounding a little flabbergasted, "I didn't even know she had a mouth. Come 'ere you..."

The moment, or whatever it was, had properly broken and Yondu stood to pick the little girl up. His arms full of prickly little girl happily squirming away, Yondu turned around and froze as he finally noticed Stakar standing there, no longer hidden by the corner's line of sight. And Stakar watched as the man's open and easy, almost-smiling expression closed off completely.

"H'ekk," Yondu called, and Stakar looked down to see the little shi'ar aeri boy appear and glare up at him suspiciously, "I'm gonna need you to take Nettle for a bit. Bring 'er down to the medbay for me. You don't gotta stay but the rest of the kids should be there still."

The boy looked between the two men, eyes flicking under his furrowed brow, but he obediently raised his arms to take the girl from Yondu's arms. Nettle, her squirming very much un-happy now, put up a bit of a fuss about exchanging hands- reaching back for Yondu as H'ekk pulled her away from him.

"Just for a bit Prickly Pear," Yondu said, passing her over, "Now you be good to your brother and keep your prickles to yourself, you hear."

H'ekk hefted Nettle in his arms awkwardly for a second before she settled. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she rested her head on his shoulder, her red eyes peaking out from underneath her yellow fronds in a undeniable pout as she watched them as they walked away.

Yondu, hands in his pockets, stayed silent as he watched them go. The boy darting glances back over his shoulder at them every other step he took, until they turned a corner and were gone.

With the kids finally out of sight, Yondu heaved a heavy sigh and lifted a hand to rub tiredly at his face and neck before finally turning to face Stakar once more.

The silence stretched like a gulf between them, and as Stakar looked Yondu over once more, he found the man before him didn't match up with his memory. There was a heavy weight of maturity draped over the blue man's shoulder's that hadn't been there before. Stakar could see it in the tired lines on his face. See it in the way he'd handled the children around him.

And it threw a stark contrast to the assumptions Stakar had made towards his character. These were not the actions of a brash opportunism and youthful disregard for integrity that Stakar thought he'd find to give motive to Yondu throwing away everything he believed in. Yondu just stood there silently matching him stare for stare, and looking at him now, Stakar found none of that old bravado and bluster the boy had used to cover up his awkward insecurities.

No, what stood before him was a man. Just a man, doing his best to do what was right and expecting nothing in return.

And it filled Stakar with a bitter sort of pride to see it, even as it kind of broke his heart.

"I-" Stakar began with a cough, feeling off balance and wrong footed, and as his hand closed around the arrow in his pocket he pulled it out, "This belongs to you."

Yondu said nothing as he reached out to take the arrow, and Stakar continued, "Nothing has been decided yet. I... bought us time."

"How much time," Yondu asked, looking down at the arrow as he rolled it absently between his fingertips.

"A week," Stakar said, "We have a week. And if what you say is true... We'll find proof."

"An' if you don't," Yondu said, and his red eyes darted up to look Stakar in the eye, "What then?"

"If there's proof to be found, Yondu," Stakar said earnestly, unsettled at the resigned acceptance in Yondu's tone, "Within a week, we _will_ find it."

Yondu just huffed, almost a scoff or a short bitter laugh, and spun the arrow between his fingers before putting it back in its holster, he turned and walked away, "See you in a week then."

And as Stakar watched him go he couldn't help but wonder...

"What changed,Yondu," Stakar murmured to the stars, "What happened? What did I do... to cause you to lose faith in me."

And as Stakar implored the stars for answers, a ship jumped into the space nearby and the sound of a hailing call chimed from the bridge controls. Charlie-27 had returned.

Soon they would have answers. Soon they would have proof. He could only hope that it would be enough.

Because they were out of time.


	13. Argent - Hold Your Head Up

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway to Hell**

* * *

Chapter 13: Argent - Hold Your Head Up

 _The week is up. It's time for Yondu to face the music. But he's not the only one with steps in this dance._

* * *

Time was a man could grope an ass and not get slapped, but here we are.

The cargo hold is jam packed, standing room only - _{max capacity: 200 exceeded by 68%}-_ with so many individuals bumping an' jostling into each other one would think that the occasional stray hand wandering uninvited into strange and exciting places could be forgiven. Or at least ignored the unavoidable consequence of rubbing shoulders a hundred other strangers...

 _-{Calurnian Female. Redhead. 5'9". Curvy. Current Status: Hostile. Conclusion: Sexy as Hell.}-_

But nooooo, try explaining that to fuckin crazy catwoman here. He was just takin' the opportunity to be friendly like, that's all. Be a damn crime if he didn't show his appreciation for that delectable keester just beggin' for a squeeze.

 _-{Action: 73482 Harass Female with unwanted Sexual Advances.}-_

 _-{Processing Error. Wire Dislocated. Rerouting Please Stand By. Reconnected.}-_

 _-{Receiving Input: Trauma Located. Analysis: Subdural Hematoma. Location: Right Cheek}-_

Still reeling from his second slap in about as many minutes, Eugis rubbed his face as he shook the blue error codes out of his eyes. Goddamn these female honeys could sure pack a wallop.

A learning grin spread across his face. He might even feel it still tomorrow, an' wouldn't that be something.

Ikaniam were literally _built_ to take punishment; Eugis's entire clan dedicated to the idea that the organic flesh one is born with is nothing more than a canvas for augmentation- and the more augments the better. Eugis' dearly departed mum had her baby boy's blue eyes upgraded for oculars by the time he was four and that was just the beginning. From the nanos in his blood to the half-positronic brain augment sitting in his skull, at this point Eugis was more machine than man.

A right an' proper full bodied Xandarian Cyborg if there ever was one.

Well, right and proper as far as an Ikaniam could be considered. The clan was never one that came by wealth easy, or could ever keep it around long enough to buy the quality shit floating around in the black-markets of space. Augmentation is expensive as helll.

Not that that ever stopped them. In fact, self augmentation became a kind of point of pride- regardless of the numerous complications and consequences of a botched job. If it don' kill ya, it makes ya stronger- and if you can learn to live with pain there aint no one who can stop ya then.

Well, Eugis does more than live with it. He _relishes_ it.

"Ahhhh fuck PussyCat, save the foreplay for later eh?" Eugis slurred, sucking drool through his teeth as he turned his lear back in the woman's direction. Her face twisted into a grimace of offended disgust as she turned and walked away in a huff.  
"Aww C-C-Come on sweeeeeet cheeks," Eugis called, his voice glitching with electric-reverb as he staggered after her, "Where ya goin' such a hurry?"

He didn't get more than a few paces before a brilliant glowing sigil flared into being in front of him, causing him to rock back on his heels. A giant pair of eyes, lined in fiery gold glared down at him- and Eugis looked over the crowd to see the red sorcerous lem mimicking his magic symbol in an unmistakeable "I'm Watching You" gesture.

 _-{Lem. Designation: Krugarr. Loyalty: Clan Ogord. Classification: Sorcerer. Category: Asshole}-_

Fuckin' Stakar Ogord's watchdog on guard as usual. Well, more like watch _worm_. Fuckin' cockblocker.

"Eugis Ikaniam," Eugis had lifted his arms to send an obscene gesture of his own the Lems way, only for a strong hand to latch onto his wrist, "I did not give you permission to wander off."

"Ah! Skabie Babyyy," Eugis crooned as he was yanked around to face the displeased and perpetual sneering visage of his lover. The asgardian woman's otherworldly loveliness marred more by the frigid scowl on her face than the ugly twisted burn scar that curled up the other side exposing teeth, "There you-u-u are, I wus just-"

"Silence. I detest that nickname. Do not use it again." Skadi snapped as she turned around and started to drag him away, "Brahl requires your presence. As the captain's first mate you should be more attentive to what has been going on. This is not the time for you to practice your lurid antics."

"You-u-u like my lurid antics," Eugis slurped through his teeth, dragging his heels just long enough to stick his tongue out at the lem as her relentless pace drug him bodily behind her. Staggering after his blonde bombshell broad, he leered at her shapely ass- as well as at anybody who caught his eyes for more than a fraction of a second.

Eugis had been damn lucky to land a woman like Skadi and he knew it. Skadi was an exile from Asgard. For what, he didn't know and she wasn't telling, but it had earned her a permanent banishment and an equally permanent scarring at the hand of that bitch Frigga herself.

Being an exile hadn't suppressed her ambition none though, cause the woman was as crafty an' wicked minded as ever. They both knew that the only reason she wasn't first mate was because Brahl the Archernonian loathed women with a powerful hatred- and that the only reason Eugis _was_ , was because Skadi had made him.

She was a brutal, relentless, cold hearted manipulator- and if Eugis could feel anything even remotely close to a disgustingly soft feeling like _love_... well.

Thankfully it was not. Skadi had made it _painstakingly_ clear that she found him to be absolutely repulsive, and beneath her in every way. She'd much rather be with someone with actual _power,_ if she could have it herself.  
She'd tried to seduce Brahl multiple times and failed. She'd then tried to kill the captain multiple times, only to fail again. Archernonians are wily bastards, and it's damn hard to kill something that can turn immaterial at will.

For now Skadi was content to use Eugis to further her reach for power. And Eugis was more than content to let her keep using him however she liked.

 _Lurid antics_ indeed.

Frankly Eugis had lost interest in this whole trial thing weeks ago- once it became clear that they _weren't_ gonna be takin' that arrogant asshole Stakar Ogord's blue skinned pride an' joy an' clapping him in chains. Or throwing him out an airlock. Or executing him at all in any sort of fun and creative way. The Capn' had been real pissed at that, but then Brahl's feud with the Ogord clan had been goin on for ages as far as he knew.

It certainly had been going on longer than Eugis had been a ravager. An' haddn't that been a trip, gettin roped up with the "liberators". The Ikaniam fam had been slavers for eons; it had just been bad luck that the day his family met up with the kree for a lil' delivery would have been the same day that the ravager's got a wild hair that they were more than just pirates and turned on the biggest dog in space. The ol' warbird that Eugis had been born an' raised on had been caught in the middle, an' smashed like a bug between two big rocks.

Eugis had been lucky to survive, and when he was hauled out of the wreckage and told he was 'free' well, he kept his damn mouth shut. Lucky for him the ravager's that pulled him out were dumb stupid fucks. Never questioned why a slave might have augments. Idiots. Kree weren't interested in building better soldiers, they were about breaking slaves for cannon fodderrrrr...

 _-{Processing Error. Wire Disconnected. Thought Processes Disrupted. Rerouting Reboot.}-_

Frankly Eugis had lost interest in this whole trial thing hours ago.

He'd listened to the first few reports, but then things had stalled out; now they were just waiting for Stakar's tincan android to finish crunching numbers or some shit so it could spit out the good bits- an' when left with nothing better to do Ravagers could be gossipier than old woman an' love to hear themselves talk even more than that. Even Udonta's own first mate had gone on at length about his few vid calls he'd taken like it was somethin' more impressive than being a glorified answering machine. Unless there was something worth hearing now, Eugis was done- so sue him if he wandered off to go make some fun.

"Ah, Ikaniam there you are." Brahl said as he spotted Skadi pushing her way towards him in the crowd and shoving Eugis to stand before her. The purple skinned archernonian barely spared Skadi a glance as he held a long black nailed hand out before him, "In an effort to speed these pointless proceedings along, it appears we are to be pooling our resources."

Eugis stared blankly at the man as he pointedly waved his empty hand before him.

"Your reports," Brahl said after a beat, an unimpressed sneer on his face, "Give them to me."

"Oh! Yeah fuckin tho-o-ose," Eugis twitched as he scrabbled at the back of his head with one hand, "I got-t-t, I got 'em right here for ya Capn'. Why-y-y didn't you say something earlier."

 _-{Consolidating Rerouted Information. Do not remove from Aux Port until Reroute Complete.}-_

With a nasty sounding snap, Eugis yanked a data chip from his head with a sharp shower of sparks, his eyes flashing in a cascade of blue error codes as he shuddered at the electric twinge it sent through his abused synapses. Tonguing his teeth at the metallic tang it left in his mouth to mess with his brain so directly, he flicked a bit of the crusty corrosion from the chip as he passed it over, "Here ya go Captain Brauhl-ly. Eaaazy peazy."

Brahl accepted the chip, lips curling in disgust as he turned abruptly to the ravager next to him, he held the offending item out with the stiff posture of someone utterly repulsed at what had been placed in the palm of his hand. "There you are, our reports. Take it and let us hope it will prove more worthwhile than this entire farcical trial has been so far."

The chip was quickly passed on, and Brahl wasted no time in pulling out a shockingly white handkerchief to wipe the remnants of grease and corrosion from his hand.

"I'm sorry," A voice called over their shoulders, "Did I just hear you say that this _trial_ is a waste of time? Is that what you think we're doing here? Wasting time?"

"You think we'd be bustin' our balls doin' all this work for _nothin_ , you gotta another thing comin." Another ravager chimed in, sounding personally offended, "We ain't standin' here waitin for _hours_ just to find _nothin_."

"You misunderstand," Brahl said, turning to the irritated ravagers with a smile he probably thought was charming, but held too many sharp pointed teeth to be that at all, "I did not say that there was nothing to be found... merely that this whole endeavor has been pointless from the start."

"Ain't that the same thing?"

"Hardly," Brahl scoffed, his voice thick with derision. But with all eyes on him, the man could not resist the temptation to speak.

"Regardless of whatever _evidence_ is found the facts remain unchanged," Brahl said, his words curling through his attentive audience, "The _Code_ has been broken. And Yondu Udonta is at fault.

"And yet here we are!" He exclaimed, drawing more attention to himself as he flung his arms wide gesturing to the people around him, "Faffing about and scrambling for excuses. Because _Stakar Ogord_ cannot bear the thought of that one his precious foundlings could betray him so."

"Here here!" Eugis said, pumping his fist and enjoying the show only to be silenced by Skadi. Her grip on his arm delightfully painful around his arm as she yanked it back down, glaring daggers at their captain as he continued in grand performance.

"The man even confessed his guilt _and_ willingness to suffer the consequences. What _more_ needs to be known?" Brahl declared, his gold eyes wild as he warmed to his rant. "Had it been _anyone else_ , this farce of a trial would have been _moot point._ "

"Is that so?" Came the sharp barking voice. And Brahl whirled around to come face to face with Stakar Ogord himself.

"Hel spare me from the arrogance of men born idiots." Skadi hissed as Captain Brahl and Stakar Ogord sized each other up, preparing to engage in yet another pissing match.

 _-{Situation Analysis: Confrontational Debate. Level of hostility: High. Probable violence: 15%}-_

"This is surprising," Stakar began, speaking before the restless throng around them could do more than murmur, "Of all people, I didn't expect _you_ to be the one to speak out against anyone getting a fair trial at the table."

"Why," Brahl sneered, hackles rising as he visibly puffed himself up, "I said nothing nothing of the sort, _Admiral Ogord-_ "

"Of course you didn't," He interrupted, his own smirk curling his lip in a show of disparaging humor, "After all, if it was _anyone else_ on trial- like say _yourself_ , for example- wouldn't you want us to drag every shred of evidence out into the open? Even if we have to _dig_ to find it. To prove you innocent- or not- whatever the case may be."

The captain's smile went sharp and brittle as the ravagers around them murmured, gritting his fanged teeth on whatever sharp retort he might have. Fuckin, Stakar never did pull his punches and knew exactly how to get under their ruthless captain's skin.

Clan Brahl had all kinds of skeletons in their closet, and the only reason they haddn't all been cast out of the ravager clans was because Brahl made damn sure no one went digging for them.

"One Hundred Percent!" Mainframe cried out above the hubbub, her bright eyes flashed blue with a cascade of code, "Y'all give me one more minute, I'm tabulating the reports now. And believe me you will want to hear this."

The shift in attention was like a physical force as ravagers moved and shifted to crowd around where Mainframe was sitting on a crate, flanked by Aleta and her second who directed them to give her space as she worked.

Forgotten for the moment, Stakar and Brahl held their standoff a moment longer, before Brahl bowed his head with a wave of his hand. A mocking gesture of surrender. Conceding the battle for now, but the fight not forgotten.

Eugis moved to step away as well, his wandering intentions halted by Skadi's still firm hold on him as she drug him back beside her.

"Do not wander off," She hissed at him, lingering irritation flashing in her cold blue eyes.

"Ahh Wazzn't," He lied, his eyes twitching with the tell, as he rubbed at the drool on his chin, "Hey-Hey-Hey do ya think I could hack m'way inta that tincan. Get the whole f-f-file downloaded right ou-u-ut from under all them stuck up fucks."

"Don't Bother," Brahl said as glared daggers into Stakar's pointedly turned back, "Whatever it is, I highly doubt it will be worth the effort. We will hear it soon enough."

 _-{Attempting Backdoor Access._ _ **ACCESS DENIED.**_ _FIREWALL ENCOUNTERED. Error. Error.}-_

"Pay attention," Skadi snapped, slapping Eugis upside the back of his head.

"...Information we have compiled here we have been able to map it." Mainframe said as beam of holographic green light shot from her eyes to expand into a large three dimensional star map, with a spider webbing network of white lines jumping from planet to planet.

"What we have here," Mainframe continued over the murmur of voices at this display, "Is a very incomplete picture. Of the 2000 child profiles provided, not all of them are accessible by the global network and could not be confirmed as accurate. But of the ones that are accessible, it has been a 100% match rate."

"So what Yondu said was correct then." Stakar said pointedly, "Is that what you're saying?"

"What I am saying," Mainframe continued, "Is that, of the _2000_ _profiles_ we could access in one week's time, the majority of what we have found have been what we would consider to be a _vulnerable_ target. And that's also having to take into account all the various species and cultural differences. "

"What do you mean by that?" A voice called from the crowd and Mainframe hummed with frustration.

"Look this hasn't been an easy thing to process," She hummed with a hint of whine in her voice, "I about fried my circuitry trying to power through it all today, but seriously nobody else noticed? Unless it was twins or some other multiple birth scenario there was Not One Repeat. Not one of these kids is from the same planet as the others. Or the same race. Or species. Not unless there was some serious genetic modifications going on there."

"It's like he's taking samples," Aleta Ogord said, her eyes darting over the holomap critically.

"A taste of life in all it's flavors," Her second muttered stepping up to her side.

"Hmmnn," Stakar hummed, scowling at the map as well, the ravagers around them murmuring and speaking to one another in low voices as they absorbed this information, "Mainframe."

"Yes Commander?"

"You said this was a map of Ego's path through space yes?" Stakar asked, his expression hard and calculating, "And all the planets he visited as far as we know."

"As far as we can calculate from the list that we have been given."

"Would it be possible," Stakar said, a hand coming up to his chin, "To extrapolate this information? See where he would have gone next? Could we find one of his targets without it being on the list?"

"Absolutely not."

"I'm sorry," Stakar jerked his focus away from the map to stare at Mainframe, "Say that again?"

"I'm saying that kind of extrapolation is impossible," Mainframe whirred and clicked, "We might be able to at the very most guess what Ego's next planet would have been but to find one of his targets? Just one? Out of an _entire_ planet or species? Out of the billions that live and go missing every day? I mean we could try, but it would be the longest of long shots. And then we'd have to do it again. I'm saying not saying it can't be done, I'm saying it's _too much._

"And that's not even taking into account the fact that this guy can apparently be in two places at once."

Stakar waved his hand to cut through the uproar that rocked the ravagers at that pronouncement, "Mainframe. Explain."

"It's exactly what it sounds like," Mainframe said, her green eyes flickering as the map zoomed into particular points, tracing the lines that streaked across the stars, "We had the same idea, that perhaps if we could nail down a probable path of travel we could figure out where he'd been and where he would be going next. Using the targets- the _kids_ age, and calculating the usual gestation period for that particular being, we could approximate when Ego had been there..."

"Going by that logic, there are at least three- with upwards of six more- distinct paths all occurring around the same timeframe." Aleta's second chimed in, "And again, that's _just_ going of of the information we have been able to confirm."

"How is this possible?" "Two places at once?" "What is he?" "Why so many?"

"I can tell you," A voice boomed from the back, and striding forward Charlie-27 waded through the crowd to stand beside Stakar Ogord, with the gramosian Aristarco standing next to him. The large blue-black ravager stood stoic, a grieved expression in the hard lines of his face.

"While we gathered our reports here," Stakar said to the crowd, his hand on Charlie's shoulder, "I had Charlie-27 take a crew to the location of what we believed to be the location of Ego's planet- or at least, the drop point where Ego had wanted to have the children delivered after pick up. Charlie, tell them what you found."

"With permission from Captain Aristarco," Charlie-27 nodded to the man beside him, "I acquired the use of his second and the use of one of their deep stealth vessels. This was to be a recon mission only, and we were not to engage under any circumstances."

"The R-ship is one of the most technologically advanced ships that we possess," Aristarco said, his voice and expression professional, the struggle to keep it so barely apparent, "With it we can deepscan at range, and get a detailed blueprint of even the most impenetrable of fortress. It is undetectable on 49 different wavelengths and it's jumpspeed is unparalleled. Unfortunately this is at the sacrifice of defence, as it is incapable of sustaining any weapon capabilities. Due to this, it relies entirely on stealth, speed, and the skill of her pilot."

"Privahl the Archernonian is- was," Aristarco stopped himself harshly before continuing, "Privahl was the best and most experienced pilot we had. I could send no one else. No one better."

Charlie-27 nodded gravely as Aristarco abruptly excused himself and walked away, before turning back to the crowd of ravagers waiting for his report.

"I allowed Privahl to take the lead, as he was the one most familiar with the ship's capabilities. We performed the initial scan at deep range, at least a jumps distance away. For all intents and purposes the planet appeared to be uninhabited. Fully capable of sustaining life, terraformed, breathable atmosphere, but completely vacant as far as our initial scans could determine."

"With this assumption, we followed the usual procedure for the next scan phase. While I remained with the main ship at jump distance, Privahl would take the r-ship down into the atmosphere to perform a deep scan of the planet itself. We assumed that since the planet was vacant that there would be no danger, as there is no need to defend a vacant planet."

Charlie-27 shook his head gravely, "This was our mistake, and Privahl payed for it with his life."

"He couldn't have been down there for more than 15 minutes before... the _planet_... reacted."

Charlie gravely passed Mainframe a data chip, "You will need to see it to understand what I mean."

Accepting the chip, the map Mainframe had been projecting flicked out of existence. And after a moment of quiet murmuring, the ravagers fell silent once more as the space was taken up with the projection of the r-ship's final recording.

 _-{Receiving Input: Trauma Located. Analysis: Dermal Contusions. Location: Left Arm}-_

Eugis pulled his attention away from the frankly fantastic show of violent destruction, to see that Skadi had dug her nails into his arm, to the point that his blue xandarian blood was beginning to well up under her fingers. Glancing up, he smirked to see the rapt look on her face, flushed and just on the edge of panting. The young Archernonian's fearful and panicked expression, so _similar_ to their captain's own aristocratic features, reflected and gleaming in her eyes.

"Fu-u-uck Skabi baby," Eugis crooned in her ear as he leaned into her, "A few fireworks an' you-u-u get aaaaall hot-n-bothered. Ain't ya?"

She ignored him, which only went to show how affected she was. Shit like this always got her hornier than hell, and Eugis gleefully licked his lips at the thought what that would mean for later.

"He could have left," Charlie-27 said as the projection came to an end, "The ship was more than capable of taking the jump from that altitude and been within reach of the mainship within seconds. Privahl chose to stay, because his scan had picked up on something."

"This is what he found," Charlie said, and nodded to Mainframe who pulled up a new projection. This time a projection of the planet Ego, a layered and incomplete cross section- that held in its center a blinding bright light.

"What is it?" Aleta said, squinting as she stepped up for a closer look. Watching as the light pulsed and flared like a sun.

"I believe that this is Ego's powersource," Charlie-27 said, his voice a low ominous rumble, "And that this power source is the reason for Ego to have Yondu kidnapping 2000 children."

"Explain Charlie," Stakar said gravely, "Show them what you showed me."

Charlie nodded and with a glance to mainframe had her begin to zoom in on the planets numerous layers, getting closer and closer to that blinding light.

"In going over the scan that Privahl gave his life for," Charlie began as the projection moved, "I stumbled across something I found strange. For a planet that has no oceans, or any noticeably large body of water- the core layer contained a startling high concentration of calcium carbonate... But this.. This is not a limestone core from some long dead subterranean ocean."

The zoom increased to a near impossible degree of detail. And as one, there was a collective inhale, as the ravagers reeled back in horror of what could be seen.

"This scanning system is the most sophisticated that we have ever seen." Charlie-27 rumbled over the shocked silence, "There can be no mistake. What we have here. Is a core of bone." Whatever that power source is, it doesn't run for free. And I believe that Ego has found what it needs."

"I don't know how, but I suspect that Ego is using these children to fuel this power source."

As the hubbub rocked the horde of ravagers into a growing din, Skadi abruptly turned and began weaving her way through the crowd- yanking Eugis off his feet once more as she drug him behind her, a near feverish light in her eyes.

"Idiots," She said as a wicked grin tugged at her scarred face, her eyes darting as she searched the crowd, "They are all idiot. Only an utter fool would go against such power. Luckily I am no such fool."

 _-{Emotive Recognition Processing. Complete. Analysis: Anticipation, Arousal, Cunning, Delight}-_

Stumbling drunkenly in her relentless grasp, Eugis twitched and shuddered with the cascade of information. Fuckin goddamn. There were few things in this world that were hotter than Skadi when she was on a rampage. One of those things was when that icey bitch got the look in her eye that she had now. Like somebody had lit a fire under her ass, an' ain't nobody an' nothin in the galaxy gonna stop her from gettin' what she wanted.

Ain't nothin hotter than Skadi with a plan. Like a goddamn supernova.

"You there, Horusian!" Skadi called, her eyes finally alighting on the man she was looking for, "Come here. I would speak with you."

"Uhhh, yeah?" The portly bearded man said, stepping closer to Skadi even as he eyeballed the man behind her with a distrustful air. Eugis leered. "What about?"

"You have had contact with this man Ego, yes?" Skadi said, stepping into Horuz's personal space- his eyes drawing level with the asgardian woman's breasts. "You have access to his contact frequency."

"Uhhhh yeah-Yes," Horuz said distractedly, only to jerk his eyes away from inappropriate areas as Eugis... _giggled_ as he draped himself possessively over Skadi's back- a thing she ignored as she stared at him pointedly, "Yes, I transferred his calls to the captain. What of it?"

"You disagreed with the Udonta situation, yes?" Skadi said, unrelenting in her intense stare- making Horuz shift uncomfortably, "Udonta, who would have you playing nursemaid to children while he makes powerful enemies in Ego."

"He broke the code," Horus said, but the word held little weight on his tongue- a habitual lipservice. Skadi smiled, then. Like recognising like.

"Yes. That is right. Udonta has broken code," Skadi crooned, shaking Eugis off of her back to drape her own arm over Horuz's shoulder and drawing him in. "But first, he broke trust with you. How could he not, for you to turn from him so..."

"An' a-a-ain't that a damn shame," Eugis chimed in, moving over to Horuz's other side and breathing uncomfortably close as he slurred, "A-a-all that money-y-y too. Bet you-u-u ain't seen a red cent-cent-cent of it either."

Horus shifted to move away from from Eugis, which only served to push him more into Skadi's clutches as she raised a hand to tug at the man's beard- turning his face to look out at the crowd while she continued to speak lowly into his ear.

"The others. They dare to call themselves ravagers," She chuckled, a cruel throaty sound that sent shivers up the spine, "Ha, they do not know the meaning of the word. Listen to them now..."

She paused for just a moment, as the noise of the ravager's squabbling washed over them.

"They have forgotten why we are here," She said, "This was to be the trial of Udonta. For the breaking of code. They do not plan now to bring Udonta to justice... There has been no talk of _code_."

Skadi smiled cruelly over Horuz's shoulder as the man grew still in her arms... the moment she had been waiting for as that slow realization stole over him. She was right, everything she had said was true... and from what he could hear...

"They plan to go against Ego," Horuz said.

"Fuckin stu-u-upid idea too," Eugis agreed moving closer again, this time to grope at Skadi's ass from behind Horuz's back, "You-u-u saw that gi-giant planet faceee jus' swallow u-u-up tha' ship, right? Or wuz I the o-o-only one."

"Their plan is flawed," Skadi said, moving out of Eugis's reach as she began to draw Horuz away into the crowd, "To go against a man like Ego is a worthless endeavor. Nothing good will come of it. We profit nothing from it...

"I, however, have an idea far superior to what the others dare not consider." And the smile she flashed him was sharp and sharklike, "You will agree with it."

"Oh yeah. You that sure of yourself sweetcheeks?" Horuz asked with an acerbic bite to his tone- belied by the fact that he had yet to dig in his heels. She could see the interest lurking in his eyes. That self serving ambition. She knew it well.

"You will," Eugis said as he threaded his arm through Skadi's free arm and snuggled up to her side, and leaned over to mock whisper to the man in a conspiratorial way, "Skabi-baby here kno-o-ows her shit. Whate-e-ever she's got cook-k-king, it's gonna be _gold_."

"You will agree with me," She said again as she drew him away at a casual pace, winding their way slowly back to where her captain stood, "And when you do, I ask that you be the one to give my suggestion to Captain Brahl. For this to work, we will need his cooperation. If I were the one to speak, he would disregard the plan out of hand- and _more the fool is he._ " She snarled the words, suddenly vicious, only to return to cloying sweetness and charm just as fast.

"But if the words came from you... I believe he will be much more open to the suggestions. You will convince him to of my plan, and I will even permit you to claim it as your own. I do not care for credit. Only cooperation."

"Alright," Horuz said, and Skadi's smile held an edge of victory, as the light of greed flared to life in his eyes, "Say I'm interested. What's the plan?"

"A plan to attack Ego would never work," Aleta barked over the rabble of bickering ravagers, "We saw only a fraction of what that power source of his is capable of, and I am not eager to go charging in to meet it head first. Declare war on Ego all you like but Clan Ender will take no part in it."

"You suggest we do nothing?" A ravager roared in bellowing outrage, "Allow child-murder to go free? Ignore cries of innocent blood spilled?!"

"I will not," Aleta grit out, "Sentence my people to death in what is tantamount to a suicide mission. Aristarco would soon agree with me on that."

"We may not need to," Martinex chimed in, the clear tones of his voice carrying easily over the rest, "A direct confrontation may be unnecessary- at least at first. We suspect the reason Ego needs these children is to power his- his source of power. What if we starve it out?"

"Starve the power source?" Stakar said, then smirked with an amused huff, "Steal his fuel you mean."

"Exactly," Marinex said, excitement beginning to ring in his voice, "We do exactly what Yondu has done. If Ego can't get his hands on these kids, he can't fuel whatever that was that destroyed that ship. A win-win. The kids live and, when he's weakened enough- we destroy the power source and take care of Ego."

"Oh Yes. Yes indeed," Brahl cut in, his voice laced with acidic sarcasm, "A brilliant plan for sure... save for one small detail... _Ravagers do not deal in kids._ "

"So quickly we forget," He continued in the harsh silence that followed that pronouncement, "This vaunted plan of yours... has it escaped your attention that this _plan_ is the very reason we have even gathered here today. This _plan_ to _kidnap_ children... It breaks the _code_."

Stakar raised a hand in Martinex's direction, stopping the crystal man from speaking, as he turned to face the Archernonian with a stern scowl on his face.

"You are right, Brahl, "Stakar said, his voice strong like a pronouncement, "We are ravagers. And ravagers live by the code. We don't deal in kids. We don't take money for souls. And we don't permit slavers to live."

"From where I stand today," He continued, the room hushed in silence, "After everything I've seen, everything we've learned..."

Stakar scanned his eyes over the crowed, before landing his gaze back on Brahl's stubborn, snarling purpled face, "I'd say you and I have a _very_ different understanding of the code.

"This here," He continued, "This isn't slavery. This isn't stealin' kids for gain. This is makin' sure these kids get a chance to live to see another day. Cause from the looks of things there ain't been nobody that's known enough about what Ego's been doin' to try an' stop him before now."

"Way I see it," Stakar said, and grinned suddenly- bared teeth in challenge, "Code _does_ say we don't permit Slavers to live. I reckon that makes it so we're honor bound to stop him now that _we do_ know about it. Ego might not be using these kids as _slaves_ , but I'm sure nobody will mind us stretching the interpretation to cover this son of a bitch- am I right fellas?"

The ravagers around them cheered, roaring their approval. And Brahl grit his teeth, eyes flashing gold with his rage.

"Yes _now!_ " Brahl cried over the cheers, near incandescent with rage, "Now you approve! But this changes _nothing_! Yondu Udonta is still in violation of your precious code. _By his own admission!_ All the good intentions in the world do not make up for the fact that _Yondu Udonta_ took money for children with the intent to sell. He confessed this before all of us not a week ago!"

"Does that mean nothing?" Brahl whirled on Stakar, wildeyed, "Does the code you hold so highly mean so little in the face of your favorites that you will twist it to suite your whims however you see fit?! Yondu Udonta pressed no claim towards innocence. He clearly sees _himself_ as guilty... _**He is not even here**_!"

The cargo hold rocked with this declaration, ravagers turning to look around and over their shoulders as they muttered to each other.

"Is this true?" Stakar asked turning to look at Martinex. The plutonian shrugged and Stakar whipped his head to look towards Aleta and her second only to stop short as he caught sight of a familiar face.

"Horuz!" Stakar called, starting the older man into pointing at himself, "Where is your captain?"

The horusian gibbered for a moment unintelligently as he he was pushed unceremoniously forward by his two companions.

"Go get Yondu and bring here here," Stakar barked at him as Horuz glanced back at the blonde by his side.

"Y-yeah Go get 'im, Champ," Eugis slurped at his lips as he quickly oozed his way into Horuz's spot under Skadi's arm.

"Go quickly and return," Skadi said, cool promise in her eyes as she palmed Eugis' face and shoved him away from her, "Do not forget what we spoke about."

"Right," Horuz said, eyes darting over to where the archernonian stood, still huffing in indignant disbelief and rage. With a final nod, Horuz pushed on, the crowd parting as he made his way in a hurry to the door.

The door flew open, revealing the most vile and heinous filthy latrine to date aboard the Eclector for all to see.

"Oh by all the stars," Yadiva gagged, "That's the most revolting thing I've ever seen in my life."

"Or smelled," her brother choked out, tucking his nose in his shirt.

"Well get used to it kiddos," Yondu said, his expression gleeful in the face of the twin's disgust, "Cause this is gonna be your life for the next three cycles. Maybe more if I'm feelin' generous."

Tossing the pair a matched set of mops, he continued to ignore their overdramatic retching sounds, "I recommend breathin' that stench deep. Help speed up the acclimatizing process along right quick, an' you can get work quicker scrubbin if you ain't threatenin' to make it a bigger mess with yer sick-up."

He gave the toilets a considering look, "Course, gettin' sick on it might help make it cleaner, now that I think of it."

Yamakel clapped a hand to his face as his dark blue face turned faintly teal.

"Now, don' wimp out on me now," Yondu said, a hard look in his eye as he gave the twins a sharp smile, "You two are big tough ravagers now ain't ya? You all gungho to fight with the big boys an' now a lil filth has ya shakin in yer boots?"

Yamakel straightened up sharply at that, and Yadiva glared at him- although she continued to fan at her face with one of her four hands, looking a little teal around the gills herself.

"That's what I thought," Yondu said, and slopped down a pair of buckets to go with the mops, "So it's high time you two lil' Ravager wanna-be's got yer hands dirty. An' when I say dirty, I mean _really._ "

The twins nodded stubbornly, and turned back to stare down their foe.

"This is the _worst_ ," Yadiva groaned, pulling an' face so disgusted it was almost comical.

"It ain't that bad," Yondu said.

"I- i think i just saw something move in there," Yamakel said around the hand on his mouth, clutching his mop close like a security blanket.

" _The Worst,"_ Yadiva moaned.

"Alright it might be that bad," Yondu said, a mild concession as a long dead orloni-rat floated up to the surface of the toilet and squirmed.

"Tell you what," He said, clapping his hands, "You do a good enough job of cleanin' this up- I might consider havin' Flux here show you the ropes on how to properly handle that set of blaster's you think you still got filched away."

Yondu nodded to Flux, the gunner woman leaning against the wall nearby to keep an eye on the twins. But not too near. Definitely upwind of the draft for sure.

"What really?" The twins perked up, and Yamakel frowned, "What do you mean still?"

"You impress us both," Flux chimed in with a grin, "I just might try to talk the capn' inta' letting you two keep those pretty lil' blasters. But you'll have'ta do a damn fine job, cause they sure do look pretty sittin in my gunlocker- nice an' safe like."

Yondu laughed, the kid's expressions of horror and dismay just barely made up for the year's he lost on his life watching the idiot twins dart into a full on mutiny with armed weaponry.

"Get to work brats," Yondu said, rubbing at the kids heads roughly before giving them a shove towards the offending door, "Ain't gettin' any cleaner."

Still chuckling, Yondu turned with a nod to Flux and began to make his way back towards the bridge- resisting the urge to whistle a tune, and instead just hummed snatches of an old melody of Peter's.

"Captain!" A voice called, and Yondu turned to see his first mate jog up to him,

"What's the hurry Horuz?" Yondu asked as huffing and puffing Horuz tried to catch his breath, "You keep that up you'll keel over one o'these days," He smiled sharply, "Wouldn't that be a shame."

"Stakar Ogord ha-" Horuz huffed once more before straightening up, "Stakar Ogord ordered I bring you to the trail."

"Ah, that today?" Yondu said, and he could feel the good mood he'd been cruising on all day slowly bleed out of him, "Yeah I suppose he would _._ "

Yondu stuffed his hands in his pockets and hunched into himself for just a moment, "... _fuck."_

"Alright, ain't no sense in delayin' this shit-show," Yondu said abruptly as he straightened up, shoulders back and head held high, "Don' bother walkin me back, Horuz. You go man the bridge. I know the way."

"...Aye Captain," Horuz said to his captain's retreating back as Yondu strode away.

Walking towards the bridge, Horuz muttered to himself- his thoughts mulling over and over. He wasn't an idiot, although it was clearly that's what his captain thought of him. He wasn't deaf. He could hear the jabs and slights in his captain's quips for what they were. He wasn't blind either. He'd seen where that arrow had been heading before Stakar had barged in none too soon.

Horuz wasn't many things.

But that didn't have to be the case. Horuz thought, mulling over everything- that blonde woman's plot rolling around in his head- as he sat down in the captain's chair...

There was that familiar call light, blinking on the dash.

And Horuz Smiled.


	14. Elton John - I'm Still Standing

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Highway To Hell**

* * *

Chapter 14: Elton John - I'm Still Standing

 _Ravagers are bad news on a good day. On a bad day they just might be good enough to save it._

* * *

 _"Greetings Ego. Captain's a bit busy at the mo' so I'll be the one takin care ya from now on. Name's Horuz..."_

Whipping about in an icy fervor; the perpetual blizzard winds howl. A dreadful keening sound as storm clouds heavy with ice and snow boil with arctic thunder overhead. It is dark, and the intermittent crash of lighting does more to blind than to illuminate. But more than the dark, it is cold. It is a bitter, biting, deathly cold that cuts deep into the bone like a lance of fire. Every inhale of freezing air is painful, each breath more gasping and desperate for air than the last.

But there's no stopping now, because to stop is to die.

Into this frozen hell of a storm, a figure runs with all the frantic desperation of mortal peril.  
More than the dark snow choked night, it is pure blind terror that clouds the way.

More than the cold, it is fear that chills his blood and panic that has numbed his frantic flailing limbs; blue feet plunging deep into the side of a mountainous snowbank as blue hands scrabble for purchase upon the icy crust- clumsy and heedless of the sharp edges of ice as they cut deep into his exposed flesh.

The shrieking winds wail and cry, but carries with it something far more threatening than blades of ice and endless snow. Between the echoing rolls of thunder sounds terrible beastial howls. Hungry wails. Ululating hunting cries.

And drawing closer rapidly.

Scrabbling over the deepening snow of Jotunheim, a young frost giant runs for his life yet again.

"Flee! Flee!" The rolling thunder overhead seems to say. Mocking him like the cruel voiced taunting of the villagers, the chieftain's son and his brothers, "Flee Einar Whoreson! Unwanted. Unclean. Begone and let the ice and wild things take you."

With a booming crash, lightning flashes- splitting the night with light and sound and Einar is running blind again.  
Ears ringing in tandem with the pounding of his heartbeat, loud enough to drown out the imagined sounds of his childhood tormentors.  
But not so loud as to drown out the sound of his very real pursuers- dread unspooling as he hears the sounds of their feral baying, so near he can nearly feel the slathering jaws snapping at his heels.

Einar doesn't dare look. Not while he can barely see to run. His very life depends on it.

He must run. Run, despite the freezing cold and his flagging energy. Run, because he knows the truth: If they catch him, they will kill him. If he does not run he will die.

Run. Because no one is coming to save him.

Light flashes, a booming crack of thunder as lightning splits the blizzard clouds a second time- just in time for the snow bank beneath his feet to turn into a shallow cliff face. The abrupt sight leaving him no time to react, merely giving him a brief glimpse of doom before Einar Whoreson falls. The ground disappearing from below his feet as his momentum carries him toppling over the edge. And Einar falls, rolling head over heels to land painfully at the bottom.

There is no time to catch his breath, his tumble has slowed him and to slow is to die.

Quickly, desperately, he rolls and he is up and he is running again- and Einar realizes that his pursuers have caught up to him moments too late.

And as the jaws of death close around him, with a desperate cry Einar looked up..

From the gray thunderous clouds, a shifting shadow suddenly takes shape- a hulking craft hanging heavy in the sky, unmoved by the tempestuous winds.

And the blizzard storm splits open and all is bathed in blinding dazzling white light.

Blaring raucous sound and emitting light from all ends. The beams of light it emits swing through the sky like pillars, cutting effortlessly through the howling darkness of the storm. Swinging, searching, circling...

And with dread Einar can see them now. The light glinting off of bared teeth and dripping savage fangs, shining in the red eyes that gleam with an evil malicious hunger.

Seven giant starving feral wolves. And they have him surrounded.

Numb with cold. Numb with fear. Einar closes his eyes. Resigns himself to his end.  
Because he is most certainly dead... his heart just hasn't stopped beating yet.

And Einar closes his eyes against the radiance as all the beams of light circle round to shine down upon him... and the vicious pack descends.

* * *

The boy would live. But it was a damned near thing.

They'd swooped down to the scene of what was sure to be the lad's final moments, and Yondu couldn't hit the blast doors open fast enough. The shock of cold air blowing in like a wave of physical force blowing him back, but it weren't nothing compared to the chilling sight of this adolescent boy surrounded by gigantic wolf like monsters- enormous hulking beasts that would dwarf a grown giant let alone some scrawny half-grown teen.

Yondu had dropped into the fray before he'd realized exactly what he was doing. That well honed protective instinct had him lunging down on a zipline- blaster fire and arrow flying through the howling winds before the ship even slowed to a hover.

The bolts from the blaster barely did more than irritate the creatures, and with precision strikes near impossible in the dark the sharp whistles of his arrow just drew their attention- and their teeth in his direction. Which would have been great except that the kid was already pinned under the teeth and claws of the biggest and baddest looking motherfucking hulking beast of a wolf he'd ever seen.

Yondu didn't think so much as react- A shrill shrieking whistle pierced the air and his arrow pierced through one gleaming malicious eye and, after scrambling about in the brain cavity, launched it out through the other. The beast didn't even have time to yelp, swaying and lurching as it dropped, dead before it hit the ground- landing with heavy finality on top of the boy still held underneath it.

It took coverfire from the ship still flying above to drive the rest of the gigantic beasts off. With the apparent pack leader dead the rest of these giant beasts lost whatever little courage they had of their own- and quickly scattered, vanishing to the four winds and disappearing into the blizzard.

Sparing only a glance to the retreating monsters, making sure that they weren't gonna try and be clever and double back, Yondu was turning and floundering through the deepening snow as he scrambled to where the boy last was.

"Fuck, _fuck_. Common kid, don't be dead." Yondu grunted as he heaved ineffectually at the hulking wolf's already cooling carcass, struggling to push up and off of the boy lying underneath. A pair of boots crunched down into the snow beside him, and then two more- as it takes four of them heaving and pulling to roll the dead thing off-

"Oh fuck. Goddamn." Yondu gasped, echoing the similar statements all around as they saw the state of the boy lying crumpled in the snow like a mauled chew toy. And Martinex knelt into the snow, checking the boy's vitals before looking up at Yondu and Stakar in alarm.

"Shit, _shit_ \- we gotta- Grab him quick! We gotta get him onto the ship an' to a medic. Now!"

It took the two of them to get the boy onto the ship. Even scrawny and mangled, the boy was tall and as gangly as the name 'frost giant' implied, for all he was obviously adolescent. Just a boy.

And apparently frost giants were hardy as fuck, cause the boy's eyes squinted open as he groaned in pain as they carried him on board.

"Take it easy kid, we gotcha," Yondu said as Stakar slammed the doors shut on the blizzard. And with the sudden absence of the howling wind, he could hear the boy's low chanting mutter.

"Dead. m'dead. M'dead," the kid was moaning under his breath, and Yondu tightened his grip on the boy instinctively. And the kid rasped, "M'gonna die, ma-make it quick. D-die quick."

"Hell no," Yondu snarled in response as the boy's eyes rolled in his head from pain, "Like hell you're dyin' on my watch. Charlie, get us the fuck out of here!"

And now they were on the Eclector.

And there was nothing left for Yondu to do but stare through the glass into the infirmary where, the boy had been ever since he arrived.

Layin' still as the dead under the tender mercy of the heaviest anesthesia the ravagers had to offer, as the kid was in for a hell of a recovery after the surgery Martinex and the tailor had just done to patch the kid up and keep him on this fucking mortal coil.

And goddamn if that wasn't a hell of a thing.

The boy had been shredded six ways to sunday and his leg looked like it'd been torn off of him like a chicken wing. The only reason he was still kickin now was cause frost giants were hardy as fuck, and apparently didn't suffer from hypothermia or frostbite or any other such cold-related things... which thinkin' about it now, makes more sense than it don't.

Still didn't keep Yondu from feelin just as sick from worrying about it as he had been when they had dragged the boy into the medbay in the first place. Twice their size, and severely underdressed for the weather, the last thing the kid needed was a sickness on top of his missing limb, just an infection would be bad enough.  
They were damned lucky they'd gotten there when they did.

And twice as lucky that Stakar and his crew had decided to tag along for as long as they had. This kinda brutal maiming was far an' away outside of Tailor's wheelhouse. Stitchin' the big man could do, but that required there be something left to stitch. And the look on Martinex's face when he'd seen the boy, well it didn't help Yondu's worry much either, for all that he was desperately glad the plutonian was there. Martinex was the best field-surgeon across twelve galaxies. If anyone could get this kid back on his feet, it would be him...

So yeah the boy would live. But frost giant hardiness or no, you don't just walk off a missing leg.

But that really wasn't the problem.

Problem was Yondu hadn't really expected to find the kid.  
He hadn't the first time around, scanned the planet pole to pole an' found not a blip. Figured the kid had managed to get himself off planet somehow. Jotunheim might not be the most space-faring planet out there, but the Frost Giants had their own ways of traversing the stars, so it hadn't been that much of a stretch to think he'd missed his chance to nab the kid and figured he'd swing back around later for the pick up...

But then he'd eventually gotten wise to the shit Ego was feeding him, and he'd taken Peter and run without a second thought to the one he'd left behind. Couldn't even lie to himself and say he thought the boy'd been better off... cause he hadn't. Too busy lookin' over his own damn shoulder to think about anything else, let alone look after the boy he had in front of him proper like either.

A low nauseous feeling rolled in his stomach, like guilt and worry all knotted up and tangling in his guts, and Yondu dragged a hand down the back of his neck as he pulled his eyes away from the glass. And looking away, Yondu's eyes fell on the sight of Anushka, curled up with her fluffy tail wrapped tightly around her as she leaned up against Tr'll- a huddle of warmth and comfort as they both lay snuggled up together in peaceful restful slumber.

"Our new brother was hurt real bad," She'd asked, as they'd all been shooed away from the medbay, blinking up at him with her large black eyes, "Wasn't he, Yondu."

He could still remember how she'd stood at his side, bouncing up on her toes as she tried to look in on the goings on in the infirmary. How she'd watched with a sort of worried fascination before looking up at him with a grave expression on her cute little face.

"Don't worry, we're gonna make him all better," She'd said with the self assured confidence that only children seem to still have, "He's gonna be alright. You'll see."

And although she hadn't meant it as a joke, the unintentional wording of her innocent statement had him cracking a smile. "That I will."

She'd fallen asleep before it was over, fighting it with every heavy blink until Tr'll-fed up with her jostling him with every waking jerk of her head- pulled her in close and they both fell into an exhausted sleep there on the spare med-bed. Everything was calm and quiet now, nothing to see but the slow movements of the kids' breathing- both inside the infirmary and out. But still, Yondu couldn't bring himself to turn away, like if he kept watch he could make it so that it would be true. That it would all turn out all right and he could will away the worry that still gnawed away inside him with restless energy.

A hand clasped his shoulder, and Yondu turned to see Stakar standing at his side.

"M'fine," Yondu said reflexively, despite the fact that Stakar had said nothing at all. Not that he needed to- Yondu recognize the look on the other man's face well enough. "Martinex got him all takin care of and we done what we could. Boy's gonna be alright. We.. we got there in time."

"I know," Stakar said, giving his shoulder a shake, "Just wanted you to hear you say it. You did good out there Yondu."

Yondu grunted at that, neither acceptance or denial, "Kid's gonna be hurting for a long time. He's got a long road ahead of him."

"We'll get him there," Stakar said, then huffed a laugh giving him a pointed nudge, "Rather, you'll get him there. If anyone can teach this kid how to stand on his own two feet again, it's gonna be you."

"Well," Yondu said, tilting his head with a considering air, "It ain't like we don't got a box of legs lying around here somewhere. We'll find somethin' that'll fit him," And he managed to crack a smile at that, the slightest upturn, "An' if not... Havin' somethin' custom made ain't so bad neither."

"Ain't that the truth," Stakar grinned at that, eyes flicking a glance at Yondu's fin, finally letting go of his shoulder to give him a heavy pat on the back. And Yondu feels something deep inside his chest ease...

"I'm glad yer here," Yondu said, the words escaping him before he could really think about it, and Yondu looked away with a gruff uncomfortable cough, eyes going back to the medwindow and shifting his feet.

Stakar huffed, a short laugh that accompanied the smirk on his face, "Yer a stubborn ass boy. But you come by it honestly." And as Yondu looked the smile grew, a fond look in the other man's eyes. "M'glad I'm here too. I'm glad... I could be here for you."

And Yondu had to duck his head at that, biting his cheek and gnawing at his lips as he suppressed a small smile. A bewildered disbelief rattling in his chest even as that easing feeling grew into something a little more unwieldy. It still hasn't quite sunk in yet; can't quite bring himself to believe it yet.

On his chest, the ravager badge glints in the low light, he brings his hand up to touch it.

Still there, and not going anywhere.

And ain't that something.

Standing before the blast doors to face the culmination of his trial, this had been the farthest possible outcome to the point that it never even crossed his mind.

Before those doors, Yondu had felt nothing but a resigned kinda dread. Teeth grit and expression grave, he'd strode to the doors like a man facing the gallows. He knew, through and through, to the deepest part of his bones. He knew what he'd find on the other side. Hopes, and excuses and lying to himself wouldn't change a damn thing- it would hurt. It would hurt like nothing else, but there was nothing left to do but to face it... and so he strode towards those doors unfaltering.

That's a lie. Before those closed doors, Yondu's stride had faltered just a half step as the urge to turn and run washed over him, near overwhelming in its intensity. But he didn't stop. He kept marching. Yeah, he could run, the option was still there- had always been there. But Yondu was tired of running.

So with a scowl on his face and a set to his jaw, Yondu threw the blast doors open, pushing them open with all the stubborn, willful pride he could muster and a gut full of resignation. And with dramatic flair strode in to face his inevitable fate...

And was largely ignored.

The room before him was a chaotic storm of ravagers, all speaking one over another and scurrying this way and that. With so much going on, Yondu's meager attempt at drama was like throwing a stone into the ocean and expecting ripples when there are already waves. The only one deining to notice his entrance being a purple archernonian- shoulder checking him as he strode out of the room with a furious scowl on his face.

Perturbed and more than a bit confused, Yondu had pressed on. The ravager horde was clustered around a makeshift table made of crates, a near unintelligible din as they called one to another. Mainframe sat in the middle of the mess, her lights flashing and the high whine of her metalic voice carrying over the rabble surrounding them as Stakar and Aleta called to the other captains in turn- all hands on deck as they passed print-out datapads to each other.

The ruckus was such that Yondu could barely make out a purpose to the chaos, save for the fact that everyone seemed to be on board, intent and engaged in a way that a angry mob simply wasn't. And could never hope to match.

This... wasn't quite what he expected from his trial- but confusion didn't ease the tension in his guts as Stakar finally looked up and made eye contact with him.

"Yondu!" Stakar said and imperiously waved him over, his call barely noticed by the crowd save for a few bobbing heads looking up in his direction before they were again drawn away, "Get over here an' show us where you been."

"Been?" Yondu said, confusion echoing in his voice as he waded his way through the crowd,"I ain't been nowhere. You already made sure of that."

"No, not that. That's not-Just get over here," Stakar said before turning back to Martiex and Charlie-27 at his side, "Do you think we should give Aristarko the Archernon system or no?"

Martiex hissed at that, a cringing inhale, as Charlie abruptly shook his head, "I would not recommend it sir." "-Yeah, bad idea. A _very_ bad idea-" "It would be in poor taste, at the very least." "-Privahl was like his _son_."

"Alright, I hear you," Stakar said, waving his hand at them, " Bad idea. Forget I even said it."

Turning to look at where Yondu was loitering, Stakar reached back and grab hold of his arm, hauling him to stand at his side before the makeshift table, "Now that you're here, you can tell us where you picked up those kids. One's a Shi'ar right? There was at least a few from Shi'ar space, did you get them all from there, or did you pick some of them up from somewhere else?"

"Why?" Yondu asked, brow furrowed as he peered at him suspiciously- before a thought struck that had him scowling thunderously, "You ain't intendin' to send those kids _back_ , now are you? Cause I ain't gonna let you do that. I already told you that it ain't safe for them-"

"Back? No- why...," Stakar said taken aback as he shot a glance at Yondu's stubborn expression, only to look back again as he stared, "You- you honestly have no idea?"

And as Yondu scowled at him, Martinex at his side dramatically rolled his eyes.

"Of fuckin course he's got no idea," Martinex said, a hand dragging down the facets of his face, "Boss, he literally just got here. Last he knew he was gettin' _airlocked_ -"

"Yes perhaps some explanation would be prudent," Charlie-27 chimed in with a belated, "Sir."

"You're _not_ getting airlocked, by the way," Martinex said abruptly as he turned to clap Yondu on the back, causing him to stagger forward, "What you _are_ getting, brother... are Reinforcements."

"That's right," Stakar said as he looked Yondu over, as the centurion gazed around him- taking in the flurry of commotion with apparent bafflement. Ravager calling to ravager, as Aleta managed the disputes over territories and claims- and realized with utter certainty that Yondu has no idea what is going on.

"Alright you lot!" Stakar hollered over the commotion, which died down only a touch to bring the rabble to attention, "I know I've made my decision but we got a Trial conclude."

And Stakar grinned. "So let's make it official. Krugarr, if you would?"

And from attop his crate, Krugarr flashed them all a glowing double thumbs up before whipping his arms around in a complicated glif, that shoved ravagers out of the way of a space that then glowed with its own golden light- before appearing with a flash was several large casks of beer.

Cheers and laughter rang out then, as with an afterthought Krugarr flicked his wrist and mugs appeared in everyone's hand-

Save for Yondu, and the single solitary mug that landed in the middle of the makeshift table.

The ruckus quieted down considerably at that, and Yondu braced himself for the worse even as he could hear Charlie chuckle, and Martinex at his side audibly rolling his eyes the captain's dramatics.

"When I was a much younger man," Stakar began, mug in hand as his voice rolled through hush, "I found a cause. I found the badoon brotherhood guilty of crimes that I could no longer let stand unchallenged. I vowed their end. And to the end of slavery- wherever it could be found- and if I had the power, to stop it in its tracks. I am proud to say i have done that, and will keep doing that... And too that end many of you stood with me. And because of that, a good deal of you can call yourselves ravagers today. It is the foundation of our Code and a just cause that we all keep."

"We are Ravagers." Stakar continuing, lifting his mug to silence the resulting cheers, "And we have our Code. And we have been gathered here to determine if Yondu Udonta has gone against that code and all that we uphold. We've found our evidence, we've said our peace, and now it's time our decision is known..."

And with his mug in one hand, Stakar reached out and grabbed the lone mug on the table and held it up as if for a toast. "Yondu Udonta has found his cause, and I have found it to be a just one! Ravagers! Will you have his back? Is Yondu Udonta a Ravager still?"

The resulting cheer was near deafening, an exultant roar from all sides as the horde lifted their drinks as one and bellowed in affirmation, stomping their feet and beating their chests in salut.

Charlie-27's rolling rumble of laughter washed over Yondu as Martinex slapped his back once more. Yondu staggered forward a few steps, clumsy and blindsided.

"There you have it," Stakar said bringing down the lifted mug as he turned back to Yondu and offered him the mug, "My only regret is that you didn't come to us sooner."

Staring at Stakar like he'd never seen him before as he reached out to take the offered mug with numb fingers and was utterly and completely... blown away.

"There you have it! What did I tell yah," Martinex said as he cuffed Yondu's shoulder again, and Yondu was sure to have a bruise there tomorrow for sure. At Yondu's still stunned expression, Martinex rolled his eyes and continued, "If you ain't gettin it yet, let me make it crystal clear- we're on your side brother. And yer gettin help stickin it to this Ego fella whether you like it or not."

"You worry too much," Charlie said, reaching out to steady him with a large hand on his shoulder, "Your cause is a noble one and Ego is a force that must be stopped. We will support you in this, have no doubt. The others will as well, for the sake of the children if nothing else."

"Honestly," Mainframe chimed in, her vocaloid voice a good natured whine, "What were you thinking, trying to go it alone like that. I don't know if you realized it or not, but technically speaking, two thousand kids is a fuckin' lot for one ship. Even for one like the Eclector."

"But take two thousand kids," said Aleata, as she looked over at her Firsts Mate with a secret smile, "An' spread 'em out over one hundred ships. Well that works out to about twenty each. Still a lot mind, but much more manageable wouldn't you say."  
"A lot more manageable I'd think," The woman said, and shot her a wink.

Stakar stepped forward and clasped his hand to Yondu's arm, grounding him, "I told you, son; if there was proof to be found, we would find it. And find it we did. There ain't a single ravager here that'd stand for letting a bunch of kids be turned into batteries for whatever is powering Ego. That's why I asked where you picked up your kids. We're dividing the list up into territories- twenty each- and we need to know which ones to strike off the list."

"Right now I'm sorting them by galaxy," Mainframe churred, her eyes flickering in binary code, "In the meantime if you wanna call dibs on a system- now's the time."

"Sol," Yondu managed to say, still rattled and blindsided, but not nearly enough to forget his boy, "I've got dibs on Sol. Tera. There's one on Tera... an' a few others."

"Hey, that's our neighborhood," Martinex said, jerking his head towards Charlie, "Damn, that fucker sure gets around."

"You'll get Sol," Stakar said with a determined nod, "We wouldn't have it any other way."

"If there is one on Jupiter," Charlie-27 said, "Make sure you call me first. I have information that would be helpful for you. A dangerous place, where I am from. And I don't mean just the planet."

"Hell yeah," Martinex grinned, punching Charlie on the shoulder before turning to Yondu, "Ditto with me. I got a lot of clout with the ol' iceball compound. You visit Pluto, and I can put in a good word for ya."

"What are you idiots waiting for?" Aleta said, slinging her arm around her first mate as she lifted her mug at them pointedly, "Drink up! We got work to do."

"That we do," Stakar said, and raised his mug at Yondu who lifted his in turn, "We'll bring them home son."

"Damn right." Yondu said, and if his voice was gruff and choked no one noticed, "Damn right."

With a smash, the mugs were knocked together with cracking force and then knocked back as they both drank to the sounds of the roaring rolicking ravager hoard.

The alcohol burned all the way down, but Yondu didn't mind.. Especially when the warm glow lingered long after the impromptu planning party died down and the Ravagers started to go their separate ways.

Even now, days later, Yondu could still feel that burning warmth tingling deep down inside as stood alone once more in the med bay. Stakar's hand a phantom warmth still lingering on his shoulder as he pulled off his coat to drape it over the two kids sleeping peacefully on the bed before him. Turning at last fully away from the med window, Yondu strode over to lean against the wall and look out a portside window and out at the stars.

They made it in time. This time. they'd made it in time- beat a clock Yondu hadn't know was ticking. And that was good. That was great. Better than great. Kid would need some time to heal, but this time, _this time_ , heal he would.

The Ravagers' had his back. They would rescue all these goddamn kids and there was nothing, _nothing_ , that Ego could do to stop it.

His kids will be safe. Yondu was gonna make sure of that. _Damn right._

And sooner now than ever, Yondu would get his boy back, would bring his boy _home._

Next stop. Sol. Next stop. Terra. Next stop. Peter.

"Hold on Pete," Yondu murmured to the stars, "Daddy's coming."


	15. Queen - Don't Stop Me Now

**A Bad Man's Second Chance**

 **Part One: Highway to Hell**

Chapter 15: Queen - Don't Stop Me Now

 _Finally, Yondu's gonna bring his boy home. He's early, but that's not gonna be a problem... Right?_

* * *

"...hmng... ma- mother?"

Yondu looked up from where he was sitting in the medbay to see the latest patient finally begin to stir, blue hands plucking weakly at the thin covers and red eyes blinking blearily in his direction.

"Woah, hey easy does it there son," Yondu said getting to his feet and gently pulling the young frost giant's hands away to lay back at his sides, "We're gonna leave that be for now. Don't wanna undo all that hard work of gettin ya cleaned up and bandaged by unraveling things that ought not be unraveled."

"M' hot," Einar mumbled, his eyes falling closed again even as he continued to squirm, "Am I dead?"

"Ah, no not nearly," Yondu said wryly as he gently pressed the back of his hand to the kid's forehead, "Reckon if you was dead you'd be feeling a bit more comfortable at the moment. You seem cool enough to me, so it don't seem like yer feaverish. But I ain't a doc, so what do I know."

The boy on the bed groaned discontentedly, face scrunched up as he picked at the sheet, still clearly out of it.

"Did somebody call for the doctor? Cause Doctor Martinex T'naga is in the house!"

Speak of the devil, Yondu rolled his eyes so hard he nearly echoed Einars groan at the noise.

"Oh ho ho! Sounds like _somebody's_ ready for their next hit of Happy Juice," Martinex chirped as he swanned into the room, "And right on time too! Took a bit to calculate the right dosage for your frankly _ridiculous_ frost giant metabolism but then, lucky for you, _I_ am a genius."

Martinex made his way to the kids bedside, fussing with the medical equipment, "Annnnd, there we go. You should be feeling _very good_ right about- now."

"Ohhh," Einar said faintly as all discomfort and urgency left his body, practically melting back into the bed as he blinked up at them lazily, "M'still hot."

"Don't' think we can do much about that kiddo," Yondu said, quietly pleased that the kid had recovered enough to complain; still a lil shocky but he was more coherent than Tr'll had been when they first hauled him on board. "Yer from a friggin rock made of ice. Figure anything warmer than that is gonna be too hot. Likely it's somethin' you're just gonna have to get used to."

Einar frowned at him before wobbily shifting his gaze over to the new man standing beside him, squinting closer in befuddled confusion, "Are you... Ice? Are you- Aren't you hot? I'm hot."

"Why thank you." Martinex grinned as Yondu dropped his head into a facepalm, "You're a tad young for me but I did just save your life so I'll let you down gently this time."

"Marty, he's a frost giant," Yondu said unamused, "Boy's probably older than anyone here."

"Semantics," He waved his hand and Einar's head bobbled drowsily to follow it, "Time may be relative, but sexual maturity is not. I don't blame him though. I am rather spectacularly flawless."

"Flawless. Right." Yondu deadpanned before cracking a sly grin of his own, "I seem to recall differently... You remember that one time on Beta-"

"Oh Hey! Look who's here!" Matinex said abruptly, turning away with overly cheerful pep.

Walking into the infirmary, the large blue pheragot held open the door for what appeared to be walking box full of various articulated limbs and machinery. Anushka scurried into the room shortly after, carrying a smaller- if similarly overstuffed box of her own.

"Hiya Gus, and what have we here?" Martinex said reaching down to pluck the box out of Anushka's arms as the larger tower of boxes staggered over to a nearby table where Tr'll set his burden down with a relieved sigh, "Why, if it isn't my favorite new little assistant. What have you been up to, sweetheart?"

"Hello Doctor T'naga," Anushka said, bouncing on her toes and beaming up at the plutonian with what appeared to be the beginnings of hero-worship in her eyes, and Yondu was quick to walk over and pick her up, "Hi Yondu. Me and Tr'll, we've been looking for scraps. He's super duper smart so I asked him if he could make Einar a new leg. And he said he could! So we've been looking for parts and we found tons and tons and Gus said nobody was using it so we could have it all."

"Is that so?" Yondu said looking over Anushka's fluffy head at the deonist boy. Tr'll flushed under his gaze and gave an awkward shrug as he picked at some of the things in the box and fiddled with it in his hands. It was the most animated and engaged the boy had been since they'd picked him up, baring the mutiny of course, and Yondu was glad to see it.

"It's something to do," Tr'll muttered looking away, "And she did ask so..."

"Well, how about that," Yondu said turning to look back at the little girl in his arms, and Anushka smiled back at him proudly, "That's a good idea you had 'Nush. Reckon between the two of you, you'll have his right leg jealous of the new one when all's said and done."

"Yes," Anushka said, bouncing in his arms in excitement, "Tr'll is gonna make the very best leg ever. And I'm gonna help!"

"Well, if _you_ are helping then of course it'll be the best," Martinex said with wink as he gave the fuzzy little girl a tickle that had her giggling and squirming out of Yondu's arms, "Why don't you go help Tr'll sort out the stuff and keep Einar company. He's a lil' loopy right now, but don't let that bother you none. You just make sure he gets plenty of bedrest. You can do that can't ya?"

"Yes. I can do that," Anushka said, an adorable expression of determination on her face as she scampered away to Einar's bedside."I will make sure he gets the very best rest. Thank you, Doctor T'naga."

"No thank you, little Nurse Nush," Martinex said, ruffling her hair as she passed him and looked back up at Yondu with a grin, "She's a real peach that one."

"Yeah well, get your own. This one's mine," Yondu said in response, mock gruffy as they watched the little girl interact with her brothers. Fighting grins at Einar's plaintive drugged observations, " _what are you- are you wearing furs? It's too hot for furs. Why is it so- so warrrrm."_

"I might just do," Martinex laughed before getting back to business, as he started to pack up the bits and bobs that made up his personal medkit, sorting it out from the things infirmary's things, "I wouldn't recommend messing with the kids stump right away- but give it a few weeks to heal up. But I figure they can at least make sure the kids new leg is the right size and functional before tweaking it to fit. That should be enough time for the nerves to calm down some"

"Provided your tailor keeps the kid on his antibiotic regime," Martinex continued, wagging a finger as he continued to pack his stuff away, "That should knock out any chance of infection and speed the healing process along. I gave Gus directions and some of the good stuff, medical supplies and the like.

"Nano stuff-" He said, waving a tube before putting that away too, "Not the fanciest but it gets the job done, so long as you keep the injections regular. And I'm sure if he forgets, that little girl will be more than glad to remind him. Kid should be up and learning to walk again in just a couple weeks."

"That soon?" Yondu asked, somewhat surprised, "Huh."

"I know, right?" Martinex said with a blinding smile, slinging his pack over his shoulders before throwing an arm around Yondu's, "You're so lucky. I don't do this for just anyone, you know. I'm ridiculously generous, not to mention brilliant."

"I can't believe I missed you, get the hell off my ship"

"Aww you missed me! I missed you too, brother."

On the other side of the ship, a vent hatch creaked open in an empty hallway.

Dangling upside-down, the young shiar boy darted a quick look around before disappearing once more, "Coast is clear. Let's move out. On my signal- Ouch! Hey!"

"This ain't a stealth mission H'ekk," Kraglin said as he nimbly dropped to the floor, quickly followed by Willit and a very disgruntled H'ekk.

"Stealth is a valuable asset and should not be so carelessly discarded," H'ekk groused back, and was ignored as the other two kids dusted themselves off before heading down the hall.

"Why'd we need to take the vents?" Willit asked, rubbing the grime from his palms on his pants.

"Shortcut," Kraglin replied as he opened a door to the hanger bay, "The vents were just quicker is all. That other ship leaves today and I didn't want to miss it- its our last chance to see _him_ before they leave."

"See who?"

"Starhawk," Kraglin and H'ekk replied with wildly different inflections.

"Who's that?"

Kraglins jaw dropped, "You don't know who _Starhawk_ is?!"

"I lived in a desert," Willit said back with a flat scowl.

"Oh right," Kraglin said contrightly with a blink, before barrling on in his enthusiasm, "Anyway! Starhawk is-"  
"Starhawk is a renowned intergalactic criminal wanted by the Shi'ar for war crimes against the empire," H'ekk interjected, his tone starting out placid dictation but slowly edging its way into a fervent rant, eyes going wild with every word,"His campaign against the Badoon Brotherhood destabled countless imperialized colonies and his strikes against the Empire itself are without number! He has evaded capture countless times and escaped imprisonment from even the strongest of the Shi'ar Strongholds! To Take Down The Starhawk Would Mean Honor and Glory And-"

"H'ekk! Knock it off," Willit said, elboying the boy in the chest enough to knock the breath out of him briefly, "Besides, didn't you say you weren't gonna do anything for the Shi'ar until they came for you first? Like, five minutes ago?"

"AAA-oh," H'ekk huffed, blinking as he rubbed his chest with a frown, "Right. I did say that."

"Right, whatever," Kraglin rolled his eyes before going on, "So anyways yeah, as I was saying. Starhawk is _the coolest_! He's only just _the best_ pilot that the galaxy has ever seen-"

"Well,I wouldn't say that," A deep voice chuckled from behind them, "But I'm flattered to hear it."

Startled, the three boys whipped around to see Stakar Ogord walking towards them, a mug of something in one hand and the other wrapped around Nettle as he held her on his hip. "And I'm glad to hear I still rank that high on the Empire's shitlist, even after all this time. It's hard work to piss people off that much, good to know the effort hasn't gone to waste.

"Open the door would ya?" Stakar said, waving his mugged hand towards the door behind them, and struggled to suppress a smile at the trio of diverse expressions before him: slack-jawed awe, squinty-eyed suspicion, and one... well, it was kinda hard to tell with the kids features changing like that, but startled confusion seemed like a safe bet.

"You're Starha- You're Star-" Kraglin babbled breathlessly as H'ekk glared from over the other boy's shoulder. Willit just looked at the other boys, his confused frown unchanging on his changeable features as he mumbled, "He's just a man. I don't see what the big deal is..."

"Deep breaths son." Stakar said, struggling and failing to keep the amusement out of his voice, "The doors right there- or, here, just take her an' I'll get it."

Juggling his drink and the girl, Stakar passed Nettle down to Willit, as he seemed the only one keen to take her at the moment. Then pressing the button, he shot the shi'ar boy a wink and ruffled the xandarian boy's hair before walking through the door and into the hangar bay where his ship was waiting, the loading door of the ship slowly descending as Charlie-27 stepped down to meet him with a datapad in his hand.

"Captain," Charlie rumbled as he approached with a nod, "You appear to have acquired some new shadows."

Stakar just chuckled as he took the proffered datapad, pretending to not notice the three boys trailing after him, or the not-quite quiet enough commentary that followed: _"I can't believe it. Starhawk touched me. I'm never cutting my hair again." "Gross." "I don't trust him." "Shut up H'ekk."_

"Ship ready to go then," Stakar said as he scrolled through the data, draining the last of his mug to hide his grin, "I gotta say I'm lookin' forward to this. I remember how it was when ya'll boy's were youngin's. It'll be nice to have boys back on board again."

"Boys. Yes." Charlie coughed, giving Stakar a strange, almost amused look before changing the subject, "The ship is ready to go, but we are waiting on Martinex to return from the infirmary."

"That shouldn't take too long," Stakar said as he turned back to the door, "Cause if my ears don't deceive me, I hear them coming along now."

Sure enough, the sounds of bickering quickly followed by the sight of Martinex dragging Yondu along in a headlock entered the ships dock- Yondu snarling and shoving the christal man off of him, as they roughhoused familiarly.

"Oy, what are you three doing here?" Yondu asked as he caught sight of the boys loitering off to the side, having successfully shaken free from the other man's grasp.

"Nothing," Willit said over Kraglin's starstruck stuttering and H'ekks low growls, and Willit rolled his eyes in board frustration, "We've done absolutely nothing."

"Well good," Yondu said, then continued, "You wouldn't happen to know where the twins are then? I ain't seen them in a while and that usually spells trouble where they're considered."

The boys all shook their heads, and Yondu frowned- before they all stepped back as in a golden flash the twins were deposited at their feet in a tangled heap.

"I see you met Krugarr then," Yondu said as the giggling pair pulled themselves up.

"Is that his name?" Yadiva asked, grinning unrepentantly, "We've just been calling him The Red Lizard Man."  
"Yeah, He can do magic!" Yamakel said after her, dusting himself off, "Makes it wicked hard to get one over him, let me tell you."

"Yeah? How've you done then?" Yondu asked, morbidly curious.

"We managed to find his room, I think!" Yamakel said, as his sister slyly held up a fruit of some kind. Krugarr's favorite, Yondu knew from personal experience. She was only able to branish it proudly for a moment though, as another ring of gold burst into existence and Krugarr's red clawed hand snatched it back before she could do more than squawk.

"All right you troublemakers," Yondu said laughing as he shooed them away, "Time for you to beat it, go on, scram. You three as well. Ships leavin' and you don't wanna get caught in the burners. So scoot."

Turning back, Yondu managed to catch the mug Stakar chucked at him while he laughed, and rolled his eyes, "That goes for you all as well. Get the hell of my ship. I'm sick of lookin' atcha."

"Yeah yeah I hear yah," Martinex said as he slung his arm over Stakar's shoulders, "Just remember what we said, alright? You get to sol system you call, all right?"

"Yes. I'll call." Yondu said exasperatedly as he waved his hand negligently, "Go already."

"We are serious Yondu," Charlie said gravely, placing his hand on shorter man's shoulder, "We do not doubt your strength, but you do not need to do this thing alone. We will support you if you let us. So let us."

"Yeah. Yeah, alright, fine I will," Yondu said gruffly, but some of the edge eased out of his shoulders under the weight of Charlie's hand, "Geeze Chuck you worry too much. I'll call."

Charlie just looked at him, a smile creasing at his eyes as he gently squeezed his shoulder before letting go, as Martinex carried on in the background, "You better. I mean, Pluto's one thing, you can handle those blockhead scientists alright enough I guess. But Saturn," he shuddered dramatically, "Saturn's just weird. _Call._ "

"I will if you fuck off already, goddamn," Yondu said as Charlie started to make his way back up the ship, grabbing hold of Martinex and dragging the plutonian behind him as he went.

Stakar lingered at the door just a moment, looking back at Yondu, "You really think this shortcut of your's is gonna work?"

"Yeah it will," Yondu said confidently, and then shrugged, hands in his pockets, "It worked before at least. Should work again just as well."

"Well then," Stakar said, straightening his coat so that the glowing hoops stood upright, and then with a smile, gave Yondu a smile as he lifted his fist in a ravager salute, "Till I see you on the other side, son."

Yondu huffed a laugh, crooked teeth biting the edge of his smile, but couldn't help but return the gesture as the door slowly rose up to close, the sounds of the engine whine filling the air as he turned away. Striding away towards the bridge of his own ship, and get them on their way.

The shortcut they'd be using wasn't super well known- well, well known in one sense at least. There was a reason he'd wanted to get to Jotunheim after all. They may not have been able to access it for a millennia at least, but it was still a major doorway for access to what had to be the most famous superhighway of the extended galaxy.

The Asgardian may lay claim to the Bifrost, but its existence was like a river across the stars- and when one door opened it sent ripples down the whole thing- like waves, and if you caught it just right- you could ride the wake of it pretty much anywhere the current reached.

One of those was Jotunheim. One of those was Asgard. One of those was Midgard. Tera. Peter.

All they really had to do now was wait for someone, somewhere, to open the door.

It could take some patience, but if you knew what you were looking for it was the easiest thing to hitch a ride on the rainbow road and get from one side of the galaxy to the other.

And as Yondu settled into his pilot's chair and pulled up the screen's he'd set up special to analyze the surrounding space for just that kind of tell, he'd barely had time to get settled before his eyes spotted that special gleam amonst the stars.

"Alright you kids!" Yondu hollered at the mess of children clamering about the bridge, "Buckle up! We are goin' for a ride!"

And with that - Lightspeed.

In a special chamber on Asgard, Heimdall turns from his place by his sword and looks over his shoulder. Removing his hands from the weapon turned key as his dark haired prince creeps out from the shadows of the doorway, cautiously as curiosity set into the slope of his shoulders.

"Hemdal?" Loki asked, his voice low with suspicion, "What are you doing?"

"We have company." Is all he says, his eyes ever fixed on the middle distance.

But there's an unfamiliar twinkle in Heimdall's eyes that draws Loki to his side as the large gated doors to the bifrost are drawn open to welcome their unexpected- or rather, mostly unexpected- and quite possibly uninvited - visitors.

In a backdraft of wind and air and the blinding light of fading iridescence, Stakar Ogord strides forward out of his ship, Charlie-27 at his side as their heavy booted feet ring on the wonderous rainbow bridge of Asgard.

"We're here about a child." Stakar decaires, undaunted by the imposing figures before them.

"A little girl," Charlie-27 interjects, and barely bothers to smother his grin as twin looks of incredulity swing to face him. His eyes twinkling in amusement, much like Heimdall's before him.

"A what?" The cry echos between his captain and the Asgardian prince simultaneously, and at that, the chamber rings out in booming echos as Charlie and Hemdal laugh.

On the other side of the rainbow bridge, in the other direction, Yondu's ship is screaming across the stars.

Lightspeed on the Bifrost is a lot like a long jump, only with rainbow colors and not nearly as dangerous. The cascade of rainbow lights flash by the main window, painting their faces in ever shifting hues and Yondu wishes he had Peter's music tape to blast on the airwaves.

The sounds of the kids clambering about, hooping and hollering with the joy of going faster than they've ever gone before will have to do for now. It's a good kind of music all its own.

Endless space flies by at reckless speeds, and it couldn't have been more than a few minutes, when the ship coordinates ping that they are entering the Sol System- and fast as they are going, Yondu has to slam the decelerator to keep from bursting into Earth's atmo like a falling star. It's a close call anyways, air burning up on the outside hull as they skim the top layer of stratus and pull up to orbit Earth's moon a few times to slow down.

Now the safe thing to do at this point, would be to split off from the main ship- go down in a shuttle and make it a quick snatch and grab- easy as you please. It worked last time, right, so it should work again.

Except, this time, Yondu can't bring himself to wait. Instead, he tunes the ships receivers to Tera's radio frequencies, and soon the dulcet tones of Peter's Earthling _Rock and Roll_ fill the air and Yondu turns _the entire ship_ back down towards Tera.

Tera looms large in the viewscreen as continents rise up and gain definition, places familiar to him only because Peter had been so fond of his own homeland and refused to let anyone forget it. North America. USA. Missouri. . And one lonely, insignificant, impossibly important farm house.

Shrouded in darkness of early twilight, Yondu swings the ship down low- the massive bulk of it hanging in the air- and then heart in his throat he hears the long awaited sound ringing from his tracker and locks on.

Slamming his fist down on the tractorbeam, Yondu is up and running for the landing bay. Barely sparing a moment to holler at Horuz to main the coms and ruffle Anushka's hair as he goes- boots skidding on the metal floor in his eagerness.

Arriving at the landing bay, just in time to hear the sound of the doors closing, with a wild smile on his face, Yondu pounds a fist on the hatch door button and stumbles in before it even fully opens and-

Two auburn heads turn around at the sound of his arrival.

Two sets of blue eyes turn to look at him, shocked with awe at the earth falling away just below.

Peter Quill, chubby cheeked and so damn small, clutches at his mother's hand as she stands there, impossibly, beside him.

And in the breath of the moment as they stare at each other, stock still and dumbfounded, there's only three thoughts that manage to go running through his head.

" _Holy Shit."_

" _That's Meredith Quill."_

" _Ain't she supposed to be dead?"_

* * *

Plot Twist!

lol but for real though, y'all had to know it was coming! This is MY wish fulfilment fanfic au, where nobody dies and nothing hurts. And if that's your jam too then you are in luck cause you gotta know I gotchu fam.

I would like to apologize for the long wait, but as is my motto, I'll finish this fic if it kills me! I'm way too invested to abandon this thing, and I'm sure you are too. So please bare with me on the long wait between updates, nobody gets as frustrated with that than I do, so keep the positivity coming and know I got your back!

But there you have it folks, the thrilling cliffhanger concussion of Highway to Hell, Part ONE of The Bad Man's Second Chance series.

That's right, hold onto your butts cause there's gonna a whole lot more coming your way soon. This is going to be a five part series, with part five being a re-write of Guardians of the Galaxy vol.1. And that's not even taking into account all the side stories and one shots I'm going to be inevitably working on. OR what im gonna have to do to fix the Infinity wars. Cause you know that's got to happen as well.

Join us for more in The Bad Man's Second Chance Part Two: American Woman.

* * *

Special thank you to all you lovely lovely people who took the time to review and read my ridiculous fanfiction.

Ohnoyondidunt aka Iamthehelperdog on tumblr for all the wonderful brainstorming and writing help, I would have never gotten this far without you're endless enthusiasm. 3 ilu bby.

ix-maccaroon also on tumblr for the character inspiration for H'ekk and our two lovely new villians Skadi the Asgardian Exile and Eugis Ikaniam the Cyborg Xandarian. As well as a few more characters that have yet to be introduced.

Tangerinee aka Maandarinee on tumblr for the help, the praise, and also future character inspiration.

To everyone else your wonderful reviews always brighten my day and i always look forward to the next. I tried to do a thing where I thanked you all individually here, and wow, couldn't do it cause then the thank you's would be longer than the entire story itself.

When you point to something or quote back what I wrote and tell me what parts you liked or what made you cry, i cannot express how much i love that.

You all are like 75% of my motivation to keep writing, and whenever i feel the writers block dragging me down i go back and re-read them all! This is the first time that I have completed any kind of writing project of any sort and it is all thanks to you guys!

Just know that if you reviewed at all and in any length, I love you. Yes you. Personally and individually. I love you.


End file.
